NCAA Tournament Challenge

Everyone creates his or her NCAA Tournament Challenge, but I want to do something different. I'm teaming up with (insert the name of anyone who wants to be a sponsor here) to have the Sean's Ramblings NCAA Women's Tournament Challenge.

Are you concerned that you know nothing about women's college basketball? No problem! Here's what I can tell you about women's college basketball this year:

1. UConn hasn't lost a game since the Carter Administration.
2. Baylor's basketball coach wants to fight people who don't like Baylor.
3. The Maryland Terps went 30-2 this season, but only got a #3 seed...in the region with UConn.

If you know more than this, you have a good chance to win. If you know less than this, you have a good chance to win.

Simply go to the ESPN website to join the "Sean's Ramblings" group. Submit your picks before the games begin on Friday, March 17th. Good luck!

Trivia Tuesday: NCAA Tournament Teams Edition

We're in the middle of the NCAA Tournament with some usual (Duke, Kansas, Ohio State) and unusual (Wichita State, LaSalle, Florida Gulf Coast) teams reaching the Sweet 16. Your challenge this week is to name the nicknames of the colleges that reached the NCAA Tournament listed below.

1. Wichita State

2. Albany

3. Florida Gulf Coast

4. San Diego State

5. Harvard

6. Iona

7. Pacific

8. Valparaiso

9. Akron

10. Western Kentucky

11. South Dakota State

12. Montana


As always please leave your answers in the comments section below and do not use the internet for assistance. Good luck!

Dear UC Santa Barbara, North Texas University, Morgan State University & Robert Morris University

Congratulations on earning a spot in the NCAA Tournament! Each of you have had great seasons and deserve your spot in the field of 65. You may be wondering, well thanks random guy, but who are you? Well, my name is Sean, and I am a college basketball fan as well as an (arguably) amazing blogger. Twice in my life, I have had the opportunity to attend the men’s NCAA tournament. In 1997, I watched the #15 seed Coppin State University defeat the second-seeded University of South Carolina at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. In 2008, I was present for the amazing game between #2 Duke University and #15 Belmont University at the Verizon Center in Washington. As a #15 seed, you may remember (or perhaps you're learning about now) the Duke-Belmont game and how Belmont could have, and arguably should have, pulled off an amazing upset. Was it a coincidence that at the two NCAA Tournament games I attended, the #15 seed won and should have won on both occasions? I say no.

Therefore, I welcome you to invite me to your first round match. I believe that my track record as stated above proves that I can be of great assistance in watching your game live. All that I ask for is a flight from the Washington DC area to wherever your game takes place, two tickets for the games (please note that games are in plural for both of your first and second round matches), a hotel room near the arena, and a gracious per diem for food. In exchange, you’ll get a great good luck charm in me. Just think of all the exposure #15 seeds receive when they win an NCAA Tournament game. You’ll be on the front page of the ESPN and Yahoo Sports websites, be the lead on Sportscenter and be the talk around the water cooler for days and weeks to come. I think the benefit your team and school will receive will certainly outweigh the cost of paying for my trip.

In full disclosure, I wrote a similar letter to Robert Morris University, Binghamton University, Morgan State University and California State University Northridge for the 2009 NCAA Tournament. None of these fine institutions took me up on my offer. Do you know how these teams fared? They lost by an average of 19.5 points. You don’t want that to happen to you, so just contact me. Robert Morris & Morgan State, I hope that you'll learn from this experience.

Just so you know, I give priority to attending the Robert Morris-Villanova game since RMU is a Pittsburgh area school and I have been on the campus and in the Sewell Center in the past. However, I will certainly consider offers from all for of you.

Good luck in the NCAA Tournament, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Sean

A Letter to 15 Seeds

Dear Robert Morris University, Binghamton University, Morgan State University and California State University Northridge:

First of all, congratulations on earning your spot in the NCAA Tournament. Each of you have had great seasons and deserve your spot in the field of 65. You may be wondering, well thanks random guy for the note, but who are you? Well, my name is Sean, and I am a college basketball fan as well as an amazing* blogger. Twice in my life, I have had the opportunity to attend the men’s NCAA tournament, first in 1997 and again in 2008. In 1997, I watched the #15 seed Coppin State University defeat the second-seeded University of South Carolina at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. Last year, I was present for the amazing game between #2 Duke University and #15 Belmont University at the Verizon Center in Washington. As a #15 seed, you may remember (or you're learning now about) the Duke-Belmont game and how Belmont could have, and arguably should have, pulled off an amazing upset. Was it a coincidence that at the two NCAA Tournament games I attended the #15 seed won and should have won on both occasions? I say no.

Therefore, I welcome you to invite me to your first round match. I believe that my track record as stated above proves that I can be of great assistance in watching your game live. All that I ask for is a flight from the Washington DC area to wherever your game takes place, two tickets for the games (please note that games are in plural for both of your first and second round matches), a hotel room near the arena, and a gracious per diem for food. In exchange, you’ll get a great good luck charm in me. Just think of all the exposure #15 seeds receive when they win an NCAA Tournament game. You’ll be on the front page of the ESPN and Yahoo Sports websites, be the lead on Sportscenter and be the talk around the water cooler for days and weeks to come. I think the benefit your team and school will receive will certainly outweigh the cost of paying for my trip.

Just so you know, I give priority to attending the Robert Morris game since they are a Pittsburgh area school and I have been on the campus and in Sewell Center. However, I will certainly consider offers from all for of you.

Good luck in the NCAA Tournament, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Sean



* at least in my mind

Early NCAA Tournament Thoughts

* I’m 1 for 3 in my tournament picks thus far with Davidson losing to Maryland and Texas Tech falling to Boston College. Good start, Sean! At least I picked Louisville correctly.

* Stanford, thanks for showing up. For all the people (like me) that thought you did not deserve to be in the tournament over Drexel and Syracuse, you proved everyone right.

* Conversely, no one thinks Arkansas belongs in the tournament. Even though I agree, I think they will play with a chip on their shoulder and defeat USC in the first round tomorrow night.

* I saw that Metro had a system-wide delay this morning and reading about Arjewtino’s commute confirms my belief that I picked the perfect day to take off work.

* I am devastated. Applebee’s used the chorus from “It Takes Two” (one of the greatest songs EVER) in its commercial for Pick ‘N Pair where you can choose a sandwich and salad (or something like that). First, Panera has had “U Pick 2” for years. More importantly, that song should not be used in an Applebee’s commercial. I hope Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock are getting paid a lot of money.

A Dream Comes True

Today, March 15, 2007, I took the day off so I could sit on my couch to watch hours of the NCAA Tournament. I write this every year, but the first four days of the NCAA Tournament are some of the best days of the year. While I enjoy the beginning of the NFL season, the NCAA Tournament combined with baseball’s spring training, for me, represent the start of spring. Plus, there are 48 intense games in 4 days that include teams that I support, teams I want to lose and upsets that you do not have in every other sport. Think about that for a minute. If the Arizona Cardinals defeated the Indianapolis Colts during week 14 of the NFL’s regular season, that is an upset, but not entirely unexpected because they are all professional athletes. Now if a small school such as Valparaiso University with a student enrollment under 3,000 hits a shot at the buzzer to defeat a large SEC school like the University of Mississippi (enrollment of 17,000+), THAT is an upset.

On today’s schedule:

Maryland vs. Davidson
Georgetown vs. Belmont
George Washington vs. Vanderbilt
Duke vs. Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Kentucky vs. North Carolina

At some point, I’ll meet my wife for lunch to make up for sitting on the couch all day. Plus, I’ll watch more games on the computer including Pitt and Wright State for the late game.

In case you were wondering, my Final Four picks are Florida, Kansas, Georgetown and Texas A&M. Unfortunately, this has no chance of happening since the Sports Guy also picked these teams for the Final Four.