I’m Miles Miller!

First off, I’d like to publicly announce my dominating victory over my roommate Ben.  His beloved Wildcats got crushed by the Cardinals, which means he is now growing a mustache.  Overall I went 6-2 and he went 2-6. 

I expected 8 great games this round, not the second highest point-differential in tournament history.  Louisville, North Carolina, Missouri, Villanova, and Oklahoma all blew out their opponents.  Michigan State had a really nice comeback win, Pitt held on to beat Xavier, and Purdue gave UConn a run for their money but UConn was just too tough.

Here’s my picks for the Elite Eight:
Louisville (1) over Michigan State (2) in a blowout.
UConn (1) over Missouri (3) in a blowout.
Villanova (3) with the upset over Pitt (1)
North Carolina (1) over Oklahoma (2) in a real good game.

Monday night I watched one of the best baseball games I’ve ever seen, the World Baseball Classic Championship game between Japan and Korea.  If you missed it, then you missed out. 

This is the biggest rivalry in sports, bigger than Yankees vs. Red Sox.  Without a doubt, these were the two best teams in the world.  You had the defending WBC team coming against the Olympic champions.  Facing each other for the fifth time, in the tournament the only games they lost were against each other.  The pitching for both teams was great.  Defense was incredible, including one of the best double play turns you’ll ever see.  Ichiro laid down a perfect bunt.  Korea came back down 3-1 with a sacrifice fly from their best hitter in the bottom of the eighth and then with a clutch single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to send it into extra innings. Japan came back with Ichiro getting the game winning hit with two outs in the 10^th inning.  Japan’s dominant closer finished it out, getting 5 strikeouts in two innings and celebration let out. 

These were two teams that came to win.  They always do.  That makes me (and many others) question, “what about the USA?”  This is where baseball was invented, this is where the greatest players play, where the largest contracts are.  Why can’t we win?  Myself, I was surprised that we even made it to the semifinals.  Why can’t we care about this great event?  Players were declining to come, claiming a ticky-tack injury.  Owners or coaches refused to let certain players participate.  It seemed like there was a lot of looking-for-excuses not to come.

Yeah yeah, we did have Jeter, David Wright, Pedroia (for a while), Brian McCann, Ryan Braun, etc.  We had some hitters.  Where was Josh Hamilton, Mark Teixeira, Lance Berkman, and Ryan Howard?  We started Mark DeRosa at first base in the semifinals.  Adam Dunn and Curtis Granderson are great players, but are they the best outfielders in America?   How many All-Star Games have they been invited to?  Our starting pitchers included Jake Peavy (good pitcher), and Roy Oswalt (good pitcher), but our coach sent out John Grabow, JP Howell, Matt Thornton, Joel Hanrahan, and Scott Shields in our last game.  Who are they???  And that’s picking from the likes of Jeremy Guthrie, LaTroy Hawkins, Heath Bell, Matt Lindstrom, and Brad Zeigler.  Come on, these are not the guys I want representing America, especially with our tournament life on the line.  Where was Lincecum, Sabathia, Beckett, Webb, Papelbon, Halladay, Cliff Lee, Brad Lidge?  America has, by far, the best baseball players in the world.  But where were they?

USA allowed five or more runs in 7 of our 8 games in the tournament.  Japan NEVER allowed more than four runs.  What do you think made the difference?

Did Japan and Korea take any chances?   They brought out their BEST team every single game.  Along with Venezuela and Cuba, those teams came to win.  They made the WBC a priority.  They even adjusted the season schedule to prevent disruption. 

 I love the World Baseball Classic.  But until America takes this seriously and makes it a priority, we will see teams like Japan, Korea and Cuba win it every time while fans in the states scratch their heads and wonder, “what happened?”

Okay, Sweet Sixteen is coming up so here are my picks.
Important note: my trash-talking roommate John Benjamin Ekenes made some predictions as well, so I am posting his picks here as well so that we have an official record (vital for bragging rights).

My predictions
Louisville (1) over Arizona (12)
Michigan State (2) over Kansas (3)
UConn (1) over Purdue (5)
Memphis (2) over Missouri(3)
Pitt (1) over Xavier (4)
Villanova (3) over Duke (2)
North Carolina (1) over Gonzaga (4)
Syracuse (3) over Oklahoma (2)

Ben’s predictions
Arizona over Louisville
Kansas over Michigan State
UConn over Purdue
Memphis over Missouri
Xavier over Pitt
Duke over Villanova
Gonzaga over North Carolina
Oklahoma over Syracuse

There are no “Cinderella” teams, those low seeded mid-major conference teams that sneak up by winning a couple games and getting the majority of the headlines; and while that may disappoint some people, that leaves sixteen equally strong teams remaining, which means ONLY GOOD GAMES from here on out.  You won’t be disappointed watching College Basketball for the next couple weeks.

The Lady Catamounts from Vermont were the lucky team to match up against UConn, the best women’s team ever.  They kept it close, only losing by 35.

So we have reached the point where about half the people in America have given up because the Cinderella  they picked got beat and the teams they have going far got upset instead.  I am in this group.  West Virginia did me in. 

There have been very few upsets, fewest in a tournament I can remember.  Purdue over Washington was the only Sweet 16 upset, and that’s just a 5 over 4.  Arizona is the only team above a #5.  Upsets are what make this tournament exciting, so does that mean this year is boring, or is it better because only the “best” teams are left and therefore better games will come…?

Utah teams are 0-3.  Big East teams are 11-2.  Big 12 is 9-3.  Pac-10 was 5-1 in the first round and 1-4 in the second. 
There were four “Cinderellas” in the first round (Siena, West. Kentucky, Dayton, and Cleveland St), that’s probably average, but zero in the Sweet 16. 

Here is the ‘upset report’ in the tourney so far.
EAST: only upset was Wisconsin (12) over Florida St (5).  I got that wrong.  VCU had a chance with the last shot against UCLA.
SOUTH:  I got Western Kentucky right.  Michigan (10) was the only other upset in that region. 
MIDWEST:  Lots of “upsets”.  Got Siena and USC right.  Didn’t get Arizona over Utah, Cleveland State over Wake Forest, or Dayton over WV. 
WEST:  Never pick BYU or Utah St.  Maryland over Cal was expected. 

Coming tomorrow: Miles makes his picks for the 8 upcoming games.

It’s mid-March and that means it’s time for the biggest tournament in the land.  While the Super Bowl is the biggest single event, the insanity of March Madness spreads across everyone, sports fans and non-fans alike.  Office pools, school classes, Oval Office, even my Welsh choir teacher filled out a bracket.

Last year I administrated a Pickem Challenge, Uber Angst 2K8.  While I’m not doing that this year, I have filled out several brackets and have them scattered across the internet (Yahoo!, ESPN, CBSSports, Facebook).  There are always some upsets and Cinderella stories, and this year probably won’t be an exception.  Here are some points to share.  We’ll go region by region:

EAST
Upset alert:  I’m not sure if there will be any in the first round, but VCU (11) over UCLA (6) is the best bet. 
Later: I like Villanova to upset Duke and make it to the Elite 8.

SOUTH
Upset alert: Western Kentucky (12) will beat Illinois (5).  Butler (9) will beat out LSU (8).
Later: Syracuse will beat out Oklahoma to the Elite 8.

MIDWEST
Upset alert: North Dakota State (14) is my pick for big surprise over Kansas (3).  I like Siena (9) over Ohio State (8), USC (10) over BC (7).  Utah won’t get upset by Arizona.
Later: West Virginia makes it to the Elite 8.  That makes three 2 seeds to get upset.

WEST
Upset:  I like Utah State (11) over Marquette (6).  Purdue better look out for Northern Iowa, too.
Later:  I love Memphis to win this region as a #2 seed.

#10+ seeded teams that have the best chance to make it to the Sweet Sixteen (winning twice): Portland State or Western Kentucky.

CHAMPIONSHIP
One of the fun things about the tourney is you can fill out enough brackets to give yourself a chance to see “ahh, I was right!!” even though you were wrong on 4 other ones.  I filled out 6 brackets, and for the championship I have UNC 3 times, Louisville 2 times, and Memphis winning the other.  I guess that means I’m picking the Tar Heals.  I think Louisville is the best team in the country, but experience and balance mean a lot in a tournament. (North Carolina).  Looking back at Syracuse in 2003, it also helps to have the best player in the country, but then again Kevin Durant’s Longhorns didn’t even make it to the Sweet 16 a couple years ago. A common cliche is “defense wins championships,” and Memphis has the best D in the land so they have a good shot.