Quick Hits #10

Ok, so I have been M.I.A. recently. I know, I know. And I apologize. I really do. Now kiss my ass, and lets get on with it.....

The Illinois Fighting Illini finally lost. They lost to the lowly Ohio State....eh, excuse me, THE Ohio State University Buckeyes, in Columbus on a last second three-pointer. Great call on the play selection by coach Thad Matta, and great execution by Matt Sylvester. Meanwhile, worse case, the Illini are still 29-1 which isnt all that bad, and got the one loss out of their system before any of the tournaments begin. Not a bad way to be.

Meanwhile, they took care of business in the Big Ten Tournament and won that and locked in place the Number 1 seed of the NCAA Tournament. Which leads right into....

THE NUMBER ONE SEEDS OF THE TOURNAMENT!!
Illinois: No Shock, real good draw with the first real challenge possibly coming in the form of OSU in the Regional Finals.
UNC: Ok, what was the committee doing? This Syracuse bracket may be the most difficult bracket I have ever seen with UNC, UConn, Kansas, Florida, Villanova and Wisconsin. Hello, breather?
Duke: Now Duke has a real nice road to the Final Four in St Louis with the possible difficult, even upset by Syracuse (who is playing real good ball right now).
Washington: I am totally ok with Washington getting a #1 seed. Especially since Wake Forest never did it for me. Maybe it was because they were slaughtered in Champaign against the Illini or, and this is what I think really does it for me, everytime they had a chance to solidify themselves, it seems like they dropped the ball and the game. Washington was solid all year and had one poor game in Stanford (sound familiar? Illinois in Columbus?)

Final Four:
Illinois, UNC, Syracus and Wake Forest (I know after all that, but they are still really good).

Finals:
UNC-Illinois

National Champ:
Illinois wins 45-41 in one of the best played and best Finals since, well, last year.

Mark Prior is now injured with inflammation in his ulna nerve, a.k.a. his elbow. Kerry Wood is also sidelined with a shoulder problem. What is next, will Sammy Sosa come back and injure his back sneezing? Doesnt this sound like exactly last season for the Cubs? The one difference, Houston will be bad this year, and St Louis is be good at best (there is no way they get the same kind of pitching performances this year as they did last year.) Are the Reds a Dark Horse? No. But they will be better than the Astros this year and finish third in the NL Central behind the Cards and the Cubs.

Jose Canseco wants immunity for talking to Congress. What is next? Are we officially giving immunity to every big-mouth jackass in this country now? If so, I think Rush Limbaugh and about every U.S. Senator just got automatic immunity.

Big News of the Week:
UMass fired their head coach, Steve Lappas. Now this may not seem like big news to you, but as an alum, this is better news than the concept of paying your taxes online or paying your credit card online. That kind of level.

I will try and post a mock draft of the first round of the NFL Draft, maybe even a mock of the mock draft plus I will try and post my picks for the first round of the NCAA tourney. I cannot show the entire pick since then I would give each of you an unfair advantage. And that just would not be sporting of me.

Also, since it appears there are about 2 dozen columns named Quick Hits, I think I am going to change my column name. If you have any suggestions, please post them in the comments section. Thanks.