ILLINI Snubbed - Dance Begins Thursday

Now that the brackets have been revealed topled Kansas is the top overall seed followed by Kentucky, Syracuse, and Duke. West Virginia and Ohio State made strong cases of landing the final number one seed but they gave it to Coach K.

Why is Illinois playing in the NIT rather than the NCAA? Simple they lost to the Minnesota Golden Gophers (at home) torwards the end of the season followed by losses to Purdue, Ohio State, and Wisconsin. Then defeat the Badgers in the first round of the Big 10 tourney followed by a double overtime loss to the Buckeys. What makes matters worse is that the Gophers reached the finals in Indianapolis doomed Bruce Weber's chances. Good luck against Stony Brook in the Not Invited Tournament

Expect Kansas State, Villanova, Kentucky, and Kansas to reach the final for with Sherron Collins cutting down the nets. He'll finally get a piece of John Wall.

5 Straight fo the Bulls

Once again congratulations to the All-Star guard Derrick Rose as the Bulls have won 5 straight road games. The latest victims were Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets. The two all-star guards did not guard each other until the end of the 4th quarter as the better defender Kirk Hindrich guarded Paul. If Derrick Rose wants the crown as best PG in the League, he'll have to improve his jumper and defense. He already has the speed and strength but his defense is suspect. Looking forward to what he does in Dallas all-star weekend.

Big day in college basketball especially in Kansas as two Chicago west side guards will go hard on each other on ESPN tonight. Sherron Collins and Jacob Pullen will do battle as the ranked Kansas vs. Kansas State is the marquee game of the evening.

Right now I'm watching ILLINI loose to Indiana at home and this would be an extremely bad loss for Illinois as the Hoosiers have no chance of making the NCAA Tournament. It appears as if when UCONN lost their coach they also loss their game as they fall to Marquette by 2..70-68.

Well let me get back to watching the ILLINI game and holla at me readers later.

GO DU...BEAT XU

Northwestern Basketball in the Big Dance

I just watched the Northwestern Wildcats loose in overtime to Illinois but for the first time Northwestern basketball is for real. In the past, the Wildcats have always been the Big 10 door mat but not this season. Juice Thompson got the steal at the end of regulation and barely made the half court shot to win the game. Right now the Cats should put this game behind them as they face Michigan State Spartans this weekend. I still believe the Cats will make the Big Dance this season spoiling one of the other Big 10 teams.

Speaking of the Spartans Kalin Lucas came off the bench and did exactly what the Big 10 POY was supposed to do against Texas-Arlington. Let's hope the Spartans don't overlook the Wildcats because this could be a bad loss on their NCAA tournament resume.

Well tune in tomorrow as I list my all decade team. 

Triple Play - Triple Thoughts

First things first I would like to give props to Phillies second basemen Eric Bruntlett for the unassisted triple play. Job well done. Now to my three topics & views for today.

Derrick Rose - I don't believe every NCAA Division 1 program cheats but I strongly believe in order to get the McDonalds All-Americans, you have to pay for play. These universities make millions of dollars of these kids but yet they're not allowed to profit. I've always had a problem with the S.A.T . because that test is biased for upper class families only. Those that do not come from upper, middle class, or two parent household usually struggle on those test. The only problem here.......Pooh got caught. Derrick Rose is in the NBA now and one of the top point guards in the League.

Allen Iverson - Having a bad reputation will keep you unemployeed (see Stephon Marbury Barry Bonds). I still can't believe this future Hall of Famer still doesn't have a team. Reports over the weekend that The Answer will sign with the Charlotte Bobcats this week. Reuniting with Larry Brown is the only positive out of this. With AI and Ray Felton in the backcourt, Gerald Henderson and DJ Augustine playing time will be cut down. At 33, Allen Iverson should be a mentor to Felton and Augustine but they'll porbably pick up bad habits and become shoot first point guards.

John Calipari - Two schools, two NCAA violations, UMASS, Memphis, two Final Fours. Calipari had an outstanding team during his UMASS days with Marcus Camby and even a better team with Memphis. Now the coach at Kentucky, Calipari has the #1 class led by John Wall whose projected to be the #1 pick in 2010. With his Memphis recruits not Wildcats, I hope his Kentucky program is clean. But if history has taught us anything, it's not.