the mad sports man

the end of march - out the same way it came in. baaaaaa yes march is leaving the same way it came in - like a lamb. very little snow lying around. with loads of college basketball, nba basketball, hockey, spring training baseball, nascar, the paralympics, the rest of it felt like a lion hehe. april coming up means the beginning - officialy - of baseball, the end of the regalar season in hockey and basketball with the playoffs after and the end of the ncaa tournament. more car racing also on tap and easter this weekend. april will get interesting.

goody's fast pain relief 500 what a finish to this race in martinsville. last restart, jeff gordon had the lead. at the finish denny hamlin win. the two laps in between - chaos whit jeff gordon gettin loose as matt kenseth goes by, then kenseth slides up to the track and hamlin takes the lead there and didnt look back. joey logano finishes second out of all of that. a great finish to an entertaining race. congrats to denny.

ncaa final four set coulpe of tihgt ones. duke beat baylor 78-71 and will face west virginia in on semi final game. meanwhile michigan hung on and beat tennessee 70-69 and will face butler in the other semi final game. both semi final games are both on april 3 in indianapolis. the championship game is april 5.

regional finals, half of final four teams in west virginia just knowcked of kentucky 73-66 to go to the final four for the first time since 1959. they will face either duke or baylor. meanwhile this afternoon, butler knocked off kansas state 63-56 and will make their first final four appearance. they will face either michigan state or tennessee. oh yeah, butler is close to indianapolis - the host city for the semi finals and the championship game

ncaa tournament night six. tennessee is going to the elite eight for the first time ever (hard to believe) with a 76-73 win over ohio state. they will get either michigan state or northern iowa on sunday. michigan vs northern iowa is at 7:43pm. meanwhile baylor just blew out st. marys 72-49 and will face duke or purdue on sunday. duke vs purdue tips off at 7:57pm. updates on those later. update: michigan state 59 northern iowa 52. michigan state will face tennessee sunday update 2: duke 70 purdue 57. duke plays baylor on sunday.

night 5 of the ncaa tournament #5 butler just knocked out #1 syracuse 63-59 and will go to the elite 8. west virginia leads washington 54-43 with 8:11 to go in the second half. the late evening games has xavier vs kansas state and kentucky vs cornell. stay tuned. update: west virginia 69 washington 56. west virginia to play kentucky or cornell. update 2: kentucky 62 cornell 45. kentucky will play west virginia on saturday. update 3: a thriller here. kansas state beats xavier 101-96 in 2ot. kansas state will play butler on saturday.

more basketball and racing at bristol the fila 8 games of round two and one upset with #12 cornell beating #4 wisconsin 87-69. the tournament resumes next weekend beginning thursday. the matchups are: northern iowa vs michigan state, tennessee vs ohio st, syracuse vs butler, xavier vs kansas state, baylor vs saint mary's, duke vs purdue, washington vs west virginia and kentucky vs cornell. meanwhile in bristol jimmie johnson wins while kurt busch, who led the most laps finished third. tony stewart was second.

upsetes continue the upsets keep rolling. the big one was #9 northern iowa beating #1 kansas 69-67 and going to the sweet sixteen. tow more upsets today so far as #10 st. marys beating #2 villanova and #11 washington beating #3 new mexico. butler, tennessee and baylor are also in the sweet sixteen. right now wake forest is playing kentucky and byu is playing kansas state. update: kansas state 84 byu 72 and kentcky beats wake forest 90-60. there she be for day three

march madness is now on the ncaa basketball tournament hoas begun and already two upset and a minor upset. the big one had #13 murray st. beat #4 vanderbilt 66-65. the second one had #11 old dominion beating #6 notre dame 55-50. the minor one had #10 saint marys beating #7 richmond 80-71. 3 games in progres, another one to start shortly and 4 more later tonight. p.s. another upset when #14 ohio beat #3 georgetown 97-83.

happy st. patricks day it's st. patricks day and everything is green. people are wearing green, beer is green, and i think the chicago river is green. part of the river gets dyed green. even this post is green. have a great green day.

a weekend for other musings college basketball finishing its divisional tournament. the draw is now out for march madness a.k.a the ncaa tourney. duke, syracuse, kansas and kentucky are the four regional #1's. no north carolina in this year. big surprise there. go to www.foxsports.com or www.cbssports.com for the bracket. alberta's kevin koe won the brier in an extra end over glenn howard of ontario in what was a pretty good final. 5-4 was the score (although i think im wrong in the score). the paralympics are going on and canada got a medal today. i caught a glimpse of it. i dont remember who got it. the sledge hockey team is in the semi finals against norway after winningg its two preliminaries over italy and sweden. oh yeah it was also that time of year to change the clocks ahead an hour. im starting to feel it now. two days off coming so i can catch up on some sleep. mmmmmm sleeeep.

crazy end to car race and springtime kurt busch won in atlanta for the seconed year in a row in the green-white-checkered finish after a couple of crazy happenings, one of which when carl edwards took out brad kesolowski causing the latter to flip. i didnt see the race (damn work) but i read about it. next weekend is an off weekend, but the next race is in bristol on the 21st. gotta love spring when the snow is melting and the grass is showing. next weekend is the time change to spring forward. hope spring eternal poem on the red green show: it is spring. the days are getting longer. the nights are getting shorter. there must be a connection.

start of march feels like spring it sure has been spring like the last few days. the snow melting exposing grass here. massive puddles forming. even one that can pass for a lake close to where i live. february left us with a roar and plentiful memories of the previous 17 days. and boy what a show of a closing ceremonies. olympic withdrawals abound. march is going to feel tame. next winter olympics in four years in sochi russia.