Marching to Madness

Here's my dilemma as Monday approaches, how do I pay attention to everything going on in the sport's world and take on the responsibilities of my job? In fact, rewrite that, how do I not get in hot water with my boss while keeping track of NCAA basketball, NFL free agent signings and the Masters over the next couple of weeks? It's my own personal triatholon/four minute mile.

As I write this, we are only thirty minutes away from the selections being announced. Even though the selections are so thoroughly analyzed we now know which teams will make it before hand, I'm still giddy (that's right, giddy) for the most watched non-sporting sporting event in America. A few random thoughts on the tournament while I wait for the brackets to be announced.

• No question about it, ACC refs are biased when it comes to Duke or more specifically Sheldon Williams. Williams should foul out of every game he plays in, but the ACC refs refuse to call at least half of the penalties Williams commits. It will be interesting to see how this affects Duke in their first game against a good team in the tourney, I'll even go out on a limb and predict Duke gets upset by the Elite Eight.

• I still think UConn has to be the favorite to win it all. They just have more talent than anybody else in college basketball. You pair that with a coach who has won multiple championships and I don't see how anybody with half a brain could be picking against UConn to win it all.

• Syracuse played their way into the tournament with a beautiful run in the Big East tournament but I guarantee they will be upset before the Elite Eight. I just think they used up all their good karma last week, and won't have anything left for the NCAA tournament.

• To all the ACC purists whining about how FSU deserves to be in the tournament, suck it. Noles have one quality win (at home nonetheless) the entire season, and while I really like the Thorton kid, FSU is still a mediocre team in a down year for the ACC.

• Joaquim Noah, I may not know how to spell or even pronounce your name but you're my favorite Gator baller since Mike Miller. Not only is Noah one of the more interesting players in the country (his father won the French Open, his mother was a model in Paris) but he's the clutch player the Gators have been looking for since Miller left for the NBA.