March Madness 2009

It's March and I'm watching the tourneys.

This has been a tough year for me since I have no real clear favorite. I have my stable of favs that I like to go as far as they can. This year they are: Arizona, Duke, Memphis, Syracuse, Kansas (defending champs), Michigan State, UCLA, Gonzaga, UConn and North Carolina.

There are two "villains" or teams I will not want to make it: Villanova and Louisville. I still am not ever forgiving Villanova for their 1985 win over Georgetown, which cost hometown favorite Patrick Ewing his second NCAA ring. As for Louisville, though I was never a huge Boston Celtics fan until the arrival of Doc Rivers (who incidentally as a coach did right by the aging Patrick Ewing), Rick Pitino's tenure was not one that left warm and fuzzy memories in the hearts and minds of Boston fans-even casual ones, like myself.

If Georgetown had made it, they would have been my overall team to get behind. As it was, I pulled for UCLA so that the Wizard might live to see one more Championship, but somehow knew they were weaker this year and was not surprised to see them go.

I confess that I am for either Arizona, Duke or Michigan State because these are programs that are winning programs, but have faced trouble. Arizona of course lost Lute Olson, but the team that is in the tournament have members that were molded under his tenure and the new coach is doing okay. Both Coach K and Coach Izzo have some dust on their last NCAA wins. Something tells me that if they don't go all the way, they may face some of what Tubby Smith faced with the University of Kentucky.

This year is also different because I have cable, so I can watch the women more closely and because I am a more active Twitter user.

Currently I am tweeting at March Tweetness: http://marchtweetness.com/ as @ladyday93. It's been a little weird because it's a bit like live blogging, a skill that I wish to develop more.

I am also hoping for a school sweep, which is what happened in 2004 when UConn prevailed during both the men and women's tourneys.