J.J. I Know How You Feel

It was an up and down weekend for me. On the one hand the Badgers played great in getting to the sweet 16. They completely shut down the best player in college basketball for the final 20 minutes of play limiting him to 6 points. They had two great performances from Trevon Hughes and Greg Stiemsma and they get to face another lower, although very talented, seed in Davidson. I dont see that game giving Bucky too many problems and a Sunday game against Kansas is looking likely. I keep thinking about the last time the Badgers were in the Elite 8, when they lost to eventual Natl champ UNC. I think this team is better than that team, and we gave the heals all they could handle that day. Either way, playing to the second weekend of the tourny has to be seen as a success for a team that wasnt even ranked heading into the season. On the downside, I watched as the once great Duke program suffered another upset loss, sending them home early once again. They lost to a pretty good West Virginia team, but they had no business losing that game. After the game West Virginia player, Joe Alexander had this to say, "I think the top six or seven teams in the Big East are right on par with Duke," West Virginia’s Alexander said. "And the rest of them are right up there too." All I can is ouch. This program once appeared in 5 straight final fours, and they havent been to one since Redick and Williams left four years ago. I think they have definately fallen out of the top 10 or so teams nationally, even though this year started with so much promise. There is definately talent there, as the only lose one player, Demarcus Nelson, who pretty much dissapeared down the stretch. The problem is, they arent bringing in any help for the inside, where they were dominated game after game. They basically have 5 guys standing around the paint watching the other team gather misses and put them back in. I think they are 2-3 years away from getting back to where this program once was. Coach K narrowly missed out on Patrick Patterson, Kevin Love, and Greg Monroe, and because of that they will go only as far as the three point shot will take them. As you can see with the last two years, it took them only as far as the opening weekend in the tourney.

On a higher note, this weekend was damn fun. Friday night I was planning on staying in, but as my teams kept on losing, my thirst kept on growing, and before I knew it I was downing wild turkey shot after wild turkey shot. Had a fun night in Waterloo from what I can remember. Saturday, I had my first fantasy baseball draft of the season at my house. I am liking my team, right now, but I was starting to get tanked towards the end. As an illustration to this, I grabbed Barry Bonds with three rounds left. After the draft about 15 people came to help finish a half barrel. We did very poorly. I made a bad decision of taking some cough medicine, around midnight and I was out within a half an hour. I had a good evening though. Sunday was spent at the rents for Easter, doing my taxes and watching some great games. Damn you Butler and MSU, you really made a shitty bracket look even shittier. We were planning on having steaks, but the old man left them on the counter, only to find the dogs helped themselves to a nice New York strip. We went to the store and got some tenderloin and shrimp which was delicious, but we almost had two grilled dogs. I havent seen the old man that pissed in a long time. Sunday night Jake and I finished the first season of Dexter. What a great show. If you havent seen it, start watching. Showtime has definately passed HBO with its dramas. All in all a damn fine weekend, if only the dookies could have pulled it off...