the mad sports man

the North Carolina Tarheels pulled away at the end to beat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 88-74. it was close for most of the game. the Tarheels will face Syracuse in one semi final match up, while it is Villanova vs Oklahoma in the other. both semi final games are April 2nd with the championship game on the 4th.

Switzerland beat out Japan 9-6 in the womens world curling championships. their 4th gold in 5 years, third in a row, and 6th overall. it was Japan's first trip to the gold medal game and semi final game, as well as Russia's first semi final trip. congrats to Switzerland.

the Syracuse Orange were trailing Virginia 54-39 with 9 minutes to go and made a monumental comeback to win 68-62 to become the first #10 seed to reach the final four. a 29-8 run. wow. they will play the winner of the North Carolina vs Notre Dame game. North Carolina is the last #1 seed left. the other three went down in this elite eight round. eep

Canada played Russia for bronze and lost to them 9-8. Chelsea Carey will go home in fourth. Canada lost to them in the round robin, the 3 vs 4 playoff game and for bronze. wow. Japan plays Switzerland for the championship game that i think is now on. stay tuned.

the Villanova Wildcats punched their ticket into the final four by defeating the Kansas Jayhawks in Louisville 64-59 and won the South region. they will face the Oklahoma Sooners in one semi final matchup next Saturday. tomorrow has North Carolina vs Notre Dame in the east region and Virginia vs Syracuse in the midwest region. winners will round out the other semi final game and the final four.

Chelsea Carey and her curling team will be playing for bronze after losing to Russia in the 3 vs 4 page playoff game. they will be playing the loser of the Japan vs Russia semi final game. Switzerland beat Japan in the 1 vs 2 page playoff game to get to the final, putting Japan in the semi final game. the semi final game is tonight. the world championships are in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

the Oklahoma Sooners convincingly gets to the final four after routing the Oregon Ducks 80-68. it was close for the first ten minutes then the Sooners took control. coming up in about 35-40 minutes is Kansas vs Villanova with the winner facing Oklahoma in one final four match up. stay tuned.

in the east region, it will be North Carolina vs Notre Dame in the region finals. North Carolina beat Indiana 101-86 while Notre Dame beat Wisconsin 61-56 that game will be Sunday. also on Sunday, it will be Virginia vs Syracuse. Virginia beat Iowa State 84-71 while Syracuse beat Gonzaga 63-60. tomorrow has Kansas vs Villanova and Oregon vs Oklahome. then there were eight, soon to be four.

in the south region, it will be Kansas vs Villanova in one elite eight matchup. Kansas beat Maryland 77-63 while Villanova beat Miami 92-69. meanwhile, it will be Oregon vs Oklahoma in the west region final. Oregon just beat Duke 82-68 while Oklahoma beat Texas A&M. tommorow has the east and midwest regions. North Carolina vs Indiana and Notre Dame vs Wisconsin in the east. in the midwest its Virginia vs Iowa State and Gonzaga vs Syracuse. those games will decide the remainder of the elite eight.

the Texas A&M Aggies were trailing by 12 with 44 seconds left in regulation. they ended up coming back to tie it and eventually beat Northern Iowa 92-88 in double overtime. the overtime was a thriller. wow. they will face Oklahoma in the sweet sixteen. Oregon vs St. Joes is the last game in progress. that will decide the last match up in the sweet sixteen round.

today is the first full day of spring. it actually started at 10:30pm last night. winter may be officially done on the calendar, but it can still make an appearance. like possible tomorrow and Tuesday where it could snow. happy first day of spring.

this upset was a rout. Gonzaga dominated Utah, winning 82-59 and joining six other teams (Duke, Kansas, Miami, Iowa State, Virginia and Indiana). one more game to be decided tonight and i think it is at half time. other than that, that is pretty much it for day three. last of the round two games is tomorrow. that will make up the sweet sixteen

Thomas Walkup had 33 points as SF Austin pulls off another upset as they beat West Virginia 70-56. they caused 22 turnovers on top of that. they now have a 21 game winning streak as well. gotta love this tournament.

second major upset (Hawaii was the first) Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders just knocked out Michigan State Spartans 90-81 and became the 8th #15 seed overall to knock out a #2 seed. wow. the lower seeds are 11-10 in the tournament this year so far.

this time Hawaii upsets California 77-66. first tournament appearance since 2002 and they win in their return. next game is either Maryland or South Dakota State

the Gonzaga Bulldogs have taken the last upset of the night as it was the last game of the night, beating Seton Hall 68-52. four upsets to open the tournament. so how are your brackets now?

Wichita got into the field by beating Villanova on Tuesday 70-50. tonight they took out Arizona 65-55 to take the third upset of the tournament already.with one more game left tonight, that might be the 4th. stay tuned.

Arkansas-Little Rock has pulled off the second upset as they just beat out Purdue 85-83 in double overtime. Purdue had a double digit lead 5 minutes into the second half and blew it. that is now two 12 seeds knocking out the five seed. wow. just wow.

the Yale Bulldogs, in the first tournament since 1964, pulss off the first upset by beating Baylor 79-75. it is also their first tournament victory. wow

today is St. Patricks day. the best Irish day of the year where we all wear green, drink green beer and in Chicago, dye the Chicago River green. (too bad i can't turn this post green). it also marks the beginning of March Madness a.k.a. the NCAA basketball tournament. this should be a good tournament. upsets are liable to happen. who knows they could start happening today. first game starts after 10am Edmonton time.

Kevin Koe of Alberta beat Brad Gushue of Newfoundland and Labrador 9-5 in the Tim Horton's Brier championship game and will go to the world championships that will be held in Switzerland from April 2-10. it is Koe's first Brier and beat two olympic champions (Northern Ontario's Brad Jacobs in the semi final. he went 11-0 in the round robin. the other is Gushue). meanwhile the NCAA tournament bracket and schedule should be out. i haven't seen it yet. so i am expecting some surprises and upsets in the tournament. i think it starts Tuesday with two "play-in" games. should be good.

tonight is the night where most of North America changes their clocks ahead one hour tonight. it happens at 2am Sunday morning. we lose an hour of sleep, it stays dark an hour in the morning and stays light out an hour later in the evening. we go into daylight saving time.

by this time next week, the NCAA basketball tournament a.k.a. March Madness will be underway. this weekend has the conference tournaments to get into the 68 team field. these tournament produces the usual teams getting in and a few surprises. who will be in the tournament? it all starts next week

and boy did it ever show up the last week and a half. what snow that came earlier this winter is nearly gone. got to +13c here today and teh sun was out, although it started clouding over within the last hour. seeing loads of grass. the city crews got an early jump on potholes and street sweeping. honestly it hasn't been a bad winter. there were a couple of times it got really cold, but that is about it. spring officially starts on the 20th. so there