Tag: college

Marching On

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I love the month of March for two reasons. March Madness and the coming of warmer Michigan weather.

The month of March is heaven for college basketball fans and NCAA bball just happens to be my favorite sport to watch. The teamwork, intensity, atmosphere, and everything about the game draws me in. I’ve already been tuned in to a lot of the conference championship games from last weekend and I’m about to start filling out my bracket. When you have your pride and money on the line in a bracket pool it makes you so much more interested in the outcomes of every single game. The eventual NCAA champ will need to win their final 6 games of the season before they can cut down the nets on the first Monday in April.

Nicer Michigan weather means I start to get the golf itch. Golf is my favorite sport to play as I keep getting older, because it’s a game most people can play most of their life. It’s you against the course out there. There is a lot of skill to the game, but also a lot of luck and mental toughness to it as well. I’ve already planned a trip down to Indiana or however far south we need to drive in order to play some golf. My Dad, a few of his friends, and I will be making the trip at the end of the month to wet our appetites before we can start hitting the links here a few weeks afterwards. With the changes I’ve made to my diet and workouts I’m really looking forward to the effects it will have on my golf game.

Magical Madness

Nick Momrik1 Comment

Last night #2 North Carolina beat top ranked Illinois 75-70 in the NCAA Championship game. UNC led by 13 at half and was up by as much as 15 in the 2nd half, but Illinois fought back to make for an exciting finish to the best March Madness in history.

Words can’t even describe how special it was watching college kids battle on the basketball court for the past three weeks. There’s nothing in sports quite like it. Every kid that plays basketball dreams about cutting down the nets someday. Very few will ever get the opportunity to make those dreams a reality. Each year in March we get to watch how much it really means to these kids. They aren’t playing for money or fame. They’re playing with heart, emotion, and lifelong goals as their motivation.

I won’t even go into it anymore than I have, because you either understand what I’m saying or you don’t. It really is a joy to watch.

Round 1

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With the first round of the 2005 NCAA tournament completed, I couldn’t have asked for better games. I knew it was going to be a great year for March Madness, but didn’t know it was going to be so special. I won’t go into too much detail because anyone who cares would be watching the action anyways, but here are a few highlights:

  • Coach K of Duke tied Dean Smith for the most coaching wins in the history of the NCAA tournament with 65.
  • North Carolina was the only #1 seed to completely control their first round game over a #16. Every other #1 looked to be in trouble for a good portion of the game. I’ve never seen this before. Usually the #1 vs. #16 match-ups are 20-30 point blowouts.
  • No team scored 100 points.
  • Upset specials included:
    • #14 Bucknell over #3 Kansas
    • #13 Vermont over #4 Syracuse
    • #12 Wisconsin-Milwaukee over #5 Alabama
    • #11 UAB over #6 LSU
    • #10 NC State over #7 Charlotte
    • #9 Mississippi State over #8 Stanford
    • #9 Nevada over #8 Texas
    • #9 Iowa State over #8 Minnesota
  • Many other teams came back from 15+ point deficits to make the end of their game interesting.

College basketball is a true joy for me to watch. The power of confidence really shows during the games and this year, no team is safe from an upset. College athletes don’t get paid to play, so they are on the court playing for the love of the game. Just watch the emotions at the end of a game when the senior players from the losing team realize they’ve just participated in their final game.

My brackets are doing all right. In my main bracket I successfully picked 5 of the 8 upsets above and I swear that I wanted to pick Vermont over Syracuse, but just couldn’t do it. Now I wish I had. The problem with my brackets is that I chose too many upsets. Next year I’ll have to remember that about 2 upsets per region happen in the first round. I’m looking forward to the rest of the tournament.

Blue March

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My favorite college basketball team, the Duke Blue Devils, won the ACC tournament today for the 6th time in the last 7 years (lost the title game in OT last year). What’s remarkable about the win is that they didn’t make a field goal for the final 11 minutes of the game, until Sheldon Williams […]

NCAA Basketball Top 25

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ESPN.com has 4 ACC teams ranked in their preseason top 10 and Duke in the next group at #14. Think the ACC doesn’t dominate college basketball? Think again.

I was disappointed when Luol Deng went pro and one of the top high school players in the country decided to pass up Duke for the NBA, but they still have a good nucleus of talent. J.J. Redick is one of the top shooters in the nation, if not the best. “The landlord” Shelden Williams matured into one of the premier big men in the country last year. Daniel Ewing is a great scorer and good shooter when he finds the touch. Sean Dockery and Shavlik Randolph are the two question marks on their starting five. They have the potential to be great players, but time will tell. Randolph made some great improvements last year so I think he’ll be fine. Dockery is a force on defense as a great on the ball defender.

I’ll bet that Duke sneaks into the top 5 at least once during the season. Dick Vitale even has the Blue Devils ranked #9 in his preseason top 30. It’ll be tough in the ACC for any team to remain at the top though. North Carolina, Wake Forest, and Georgia Tech all have some great talent, with Georgia Tech really showing it during March Madness last year. Maryland returns a team that won the ACC tournament last year and with Gary Williams at the helm they can’t be forgotten in this mix.

I’m getting chills just thinking about the season! Is it really a month away?

The End Of March Madness

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March Madness came to an end last night with the University of Connecticut winning the championship over Georgia Tech. It wasn’t much of a game as UConn led the whole way and the 82-73 final score only looks somewhat close because GT hit about a million three pointers in the final minute. Not to discredit the UConn win, but GT didn’t play very well in the game.

In the semifinals on Saturday there were two excellent games, with GT pulling out a squeker over Oklahoma State with a layup and only 1.5 seconds remaining on the clock. The Duke-UConn game was a different story and I’m not too sure I’ve recovered from the loss yet. UConn was up by double digits on Duke in the first 3 minutes and was up at the end of the of game when it counted, but Duke won the rest of the game. UConn actually went on a 12-0 run at the end of the game to take the lead when it appeared that Duke was going to walk away with the win. The Blue Devils just didn’t execute their offense and continue to drive to the basket, which had been working wonderfully.

I fully admit that Duke lost that game on thier own and could have easily won the title had they made a single basket in the final minutes of the game, but they didn’t. But there is always next year for Duke and they’ll only be losing one starter, so it should be another great year for the team everyone seems to hate.

Ok…now I do have to mention the fact that the reffing in the Duke-UConn game was horrible! I can’t stand it when the refs think they are bigger than the game. Let the players play and determine the outcome. Some of the fouls that they called on Williams and Randolph (both ended up fouling out of the game) were so chincy that my grandma wouldn’t even call them if someone was guarding her. Even the announcers and media people have been buzzing about it. These refs are hand picked at this time of year and the Final Four shouldn’t have a story like this tarnishing the great sports spectacle that it is.

I’m done venting now…Congrats to UConn!

I Love Spring

Nick Momrik2 Comments

Is there any better time of the year than spring? Not for me.

The sun comes out from hiding, the snow melts, the grass changes from brown to green, and you can feel the air getting warmer as each day passes. Spring also has that distinct smell that can’t compete with any other season. Everyone seems to be happier and more up-beat during the spring. Everything is changing in preparation for the coming summer. Spring brings new life and for some “love” is in the air.

The spring is my favorite time of year for sports. No other sporting event can compare to March Madness for excitement as far as I’m concerned. I never get really emotional, but when teams get down to the Final Four things get to me a little bit. The opening that CBS does before the games is just amazing and I almost tear up once in awhile. After the championship game they always show clips of the National Champ along with other teams that battled along the way. For those of you who don’t watch, it is always to the song One Shining Moment and it may be my favorite moment of the year created by sports.

Another great sporting event during the spring is The Masters, the grestest golf tournament in the world. It’s a beautiful golf club that hosts an amazing tournament every year. Every pro golfer’s dream is to win at Augusta National some day.

Both March Madness and The Masters have one thing in common that adds a special touch…Jim Nantz. Does this guy have the greatest voice for what he does or what? His opening to the basketball games and the golf tournament are the most soothing thing a man can hear in sports. It give me the chills every year and I always look forward to listening. I wonder if he realizes what kind of impact he has on the broadcasts…CBS must, because they haven’t stopped using him.

Spring also means that I’ll be out golfing soon. During the summer I could do nothing but golf every day and I’d be a happy guy. It never gets old until the end of the golf season when you need to wear a little bit warmer clothes to be comfortable on the course.

This year I’ll be moving in a few weeks, so the spring has some added excitement in the fact that I’ll have my own place.

Did I mention that I love spring?