Final Four

Well, here we are at the end of the Road to the Final Four. Tonight the two National Semifinal games are played and then Monday night is the Championship Game. First, let me just say that I am finally recovering from Iowa's early exit. I really thought this was a year that the Hawkeyes could make a nice run in the tourney. Especially after their Big Ten Tournament Title. I was in Indy for those three games, and they looked tough and sharp...well-coached even (I know that will annoy the Alford-haters). Then came Northwestern State. I swear we are cursed by teams with purple as a color and with Northwestern in their name. It hurt to lose that way. Especially for those seniors that had Black and Gold blood pumping through them (Horner and Brunner). It hurt even more knowing that we got off to a GREAT start, then even held a 17 point lead in the second half! Hurts even more when you look at the current Final Four. Teams that have similar records, seeds, talent to Iowa. Then of course the Cinderella team...the 11th seed George Mason.

Honestly, George Mason has made the early Iowa exit a little less painful. First, it shows anything can happen, even a chucked up 3-pointer from the corner with a guy right in your face. Second, they are fun to watch. This is why College Basketball has the tournament. Of course, College Football could argue back saying that every week is a playoff and at least they have the best two teams playing in the end; because even though it has been fun to see LSU and George Mason get to this point, we know that they are really not two of the best teams in the country. Anyways, I digress.

A couple weeks ago in Indy, watching the Big Ten Tournament was a TON of fun. I wish my life could be going to tournaments like that all the time. We are already planning for next year's in Chicago. It was also cool because Indianapolis is a 1) a great city and 2) host of the Final Four. While today's games will be played in the RCA Dome as opposed to Conseco Fieldhouse where I was at. Conseco is an awesome facility though. RCA just holds more people.

So my prediction for today?!? I am going to take LSU in the late game...I just really like their frontcourt, the Big Baby and this Tyrus Thomas kid is unreal. In the early game (which I think will draw a much larger tv audience) I am going to keep dancing with Cinderella and take George Mason. Why not? Then in the title game I think LSU finally takes that glass slipper off. The reason I felt like blogging about this today though was I was reading my Sports Illustrated this week and they had a picture of George Mason students at their multi-level student union cheering right after last weekends upset of UConn. A picture like this one captures reason number 1,498 that I LOVE SPORTS. The passion! Look at their faces. Reminds me of the end of Hoosiers, after Jimmy hits the game winning shot they show Shooter jumping up and down in the hospital, and they show fans reacting in slow motion. Clenching fists, tears, shouts of joy. I have a passion for Hawkeye sports. I probably jumped a good couple feet in the air at Conseco when Alex Thompson hit his 3-pointer. Then turned to high-five people as the section we were in was going nuts. That is at the stadium/arena/fieldhouse though. I love how sports gets people who aren't even there in attendence to react with such joy or pain. Me in my apartment repeatedly jumping up and down and beginning to cry when Drew Tate hit Warren Holloway in the Capitol One Bowl. It really does amaze me though how people are brought together, how they react at something that really makes no difference in what kind of person I am, or the job I do, or what happens with the war or if the stock market crashes tomorrow. I could go on and on. So heres to sports and the Final Four and the Passion.