1 and not done

March wasn't full of madness after all.

When Davidson's Jason Richards misfired on a 3-pointer at the buzzer Sunday, the last of the Cinderellas fell as Kansas escaped with a Final Four berth, 59-57. That means that all four of the tournament's number 1 seeds will battle for the national championship. It is a far cry from two years ago, when a 2, 3, 4, and 11 seed advanced to the Final Four (No. 3 Florida won it all).

As I mentioned previously, the madness generally fizzles after the first two rounds anyway. Even with Davidson making an improbable run, just as improbable was the possibility of someone not seeded number 1 having a legitimate shot at the title.

The two matchups next Sunday certainly will be entertaining and enjoyable for the hardcore college basketball fan (you know, the one that actually follows the sport the entire year and not just during March Madness). North Carolina figures to battle UCLA for the national title, but Kansas and Memphis will have something to say about that.

So there will be no George Mason-like success story this year, not even a slightly-under-the-radar team like Florida two years ago getting hot at the right time. Instead it will be the four teams that are cut above the rest duking it out. Good basketball, certainly. Worth watching? Maybe.

Message to NFL coaches: No need to run up the score

It's odd to think that in the NFL a team leading 31-7 in the 4th quarter might have a dilemma on its hands. The outcome of the game is inevitable, but the issue then remains how to handle the remainder of the game. Rest your regulars? Run the ball almost exclusively? Play prevent defense?

The debate is many times a non-issue because of the competitive nature of today's game, but in 2007 was brought back into focus mostly by the New England Patriots. A number of early-season games were early routs, and Bill Belichick, as is his nature, was drawing the ire of his opponents by leaving his regulars in, passing the ball with enormous leads, and generally sticking it to his critics who said he was a low-down dirty cheater. The result was ugly, with Wes Welker spiking the ball with a 45-7 lead, Tom Brady being brought back off the bench to throw his sixth touchdown pass of a game, and Ben Watson catching a touchdown pass on fourth down with a 35-7 lead.

But put aside the Patriots for a second. This trend is generally reserved for college football because often times the disparity in talent leads to many a rout throughout the course of a season. Steve Spurrier was one of the head honchos in that department for many years with Florida. Though blowouts are less common in the NFL, gamesmanship can still get distorted in cases like the aforementioned ones.

Not to preach too much, but my thought process shouldn't be rocket science and should be followed by coaches. If you're team is leading by three or four touchdowns late in the game, there's no need to have your starters in. Why risk your top players getting injured when the win is already in the books? I don't think coaches have to run every single play -- the play-calling isn't so much the issue. But it's one thing to have Tom Brady airing it out with a 42-10 lead; it's another, less disrespectful thing to have Matt Cassel getting some throws in up 32 points. As for the fourth-down issue, this is perhaps the biggest gray area. Kicking a field goal is, in the opposition coach's opinion, adding three unnecessary points. Yet going for it is rubbing it in. Taking a knee is pure patronization. My opinion: run the ball. If you get it, more time to burn off the clock. If you don't, no extra salt-in-the-wound points, other team gets the ball back, other team's coach slightly less mad about his insurmountable deficit.

By in large, no fan wants to see an NFL game result in a blowout -- unless of course it's your team on the winning end. With parity the way it is, blowouts aren't as big a part of the game as they used to be. Remember some of the Super Bowls from the 80s and 90s? Only two Super Bowls in the last nine years have been decided by more than 12 points. That said, when a gruesome runaway does ensue, there is no need for coaches to massage their egos by adding insult to injury and pouring it on for the sake of personal records and perhaps personal vendettas (think Belichick for the latter). Tony Dungy won't have Peyton Manning under center with the game wrapped up, let alone throwing passes. The agenda for coaches when a game is that out of hand should not be the final margin of victory, but rather getting the game over with as quickly as possible with as few injuries as possible. After all, in today's NFL, no win is more important than the next one.

March Fad-ness: Tourney boring after first 2 rounds

I can't speak for everybody -- heck, I can barely speak for myself -- but put me in the sure-to-be-large grouping of those that simply loses interest in the NCAA Tournament after the first two rounds. Like most Americans (and I wouldn't dare discriminate against those elsewhere in the world who feign interest) I park myself in front of the television for most of the day on that Thursday and Friday when 32 teams advance and 32 teams go home. Saturday and Sunday are weekend days so I try and socialize somewhat, but the buzz is still there. That is, until the next work week rolls around and only 16 teams remain.

Perhaps the biggest buzzkill is simply the fact that viewers have to wait from Sunday until Thursday for the tournament to resume. A close second to that is that usually by the third round the clock has struck midnight for most, if not all, of the potential Cinderellas of the bracket.

Of course, I am not a basketball purist, nor do I claim to be one, and thus one can't deny that perhaps the best basketball games are the ones played in the later rounds featuring the nation's powerhouses. So it is not as if the Sweet 16, Elite 8, and Final Four are slouches. But by that time virtually all of your brackets are completely busted and thus you have no desire to see your friends or coworkers duke it out to see who takes home the prize in your tournament pool.

Maybe I'm just venting on the grounds of my own yearly bracket pitfalls. But be honest, tell me this doesn't at least describe you the reader at least partly.

Thought so.

Baseball is here: 2008 Predictions

Why spend time reading the predictions of so-called "baseball experts" when you can get equally unreliable ones right here on this site? Though it wasn't rocket science to pick Boston last season, most experts will swing and miss with at least a third of the league's teams' fates. That said, here are my undoubted whiffs at what the 2008 Major League Baseball season will hold.

Predicted American League Standings:

AL East
1) Boston
2) New York*
3) Toronto
4) Tampa Bay
5) Baltimore

AL Central
1) Detroit
2) Cleveland
3) Chicago
4) Kansas City
5) Minnesota

AL West
1) Seattle
2) Los Angeles
3) Texas
4) Oakland


Playoffs:
ALDS -- Seattle over Boston; Detroit over New York
ALCS -- Detroit over Seattle

Predicted National League Standings (*-Denotes Wild Card team)

NL East
1) New York
2) Philadelphia
3) Atlanta
4) Washington
5) Florida

NL Central
1) Milwaukee
2) Chicago*
3) Houston
4) St. Louis
5) Cincinnati
6) Pittsburgh

NL West
1) Arizona
2) Los Angeles
3) Colorado
4) San Diego
5) San Francisco

Playoffs:
NLDS -- New York over Chicago; Arizona over Milwaukee
NLCS -- Arizona over New York

World Series:
Detroit over Arizona, 4 games to 2

Green Bay now Mr. Rodgers' neighborhood

With Brett Favre's retirement Tuesday, the reins of the Green Bay Packers will, in all likelihood, be handed to a 24-year-old California kid who has never started an NFL game. Aaron Rodgers, a first-round selection out of Cal in the 2005 draft, has essentially had one significant NFL showing in three seasons as the backup to the NFL's Iron Man. Rodgers completed 18 of 26 passes for 201 yards and a touchdown in Green Bay's 37-27 loss to Dallas in Week 13 after Favre left the game due to injury. But now Rodgers will finally get his shot. So is he ready?

There is no reason to believe he isn't capable of leading the Packers back to the playoffs. He was highly touted coming out of college and didn't disappoint in his relief outing against the Cowboys last year. In a game with home-field advantage implications Rodgers stepped up and kept the Packers in the game the whole way through. But in becoming the first person other than Favre to start a game for Green Bay since 1992, Rodgers will face different sorts of hurdles. Like the media pressure of filling Favre's shoes. It was a similar situation faced by Brian Griese after John Elway's retirement. 10 years later, the Broncos have just one playoff win to show for it. Rodgers also will have a first-round pick status to live up to. But at least the very least, he appears a far better suitor than, say, the quarterback that was chosen first overall in '05, Alex Smith, who has struggled mightily in San Francisco.

Working in Rodgers' favor is an extremely talented wide receiving core and one of the league's better offensive lines. With weapons like Donald Driver and Greg Jennings to throw to, and Pro Bowl-caliber linemen like Chad Clifton and Mark Tauscher protecting him, there won't be much room for excuses if Rodgers can't keep the Packers offense at a high level.

It would be hard to imagine anyone viewing Rodgers as a failure if he, at the least, keeps Green Bay in playoff contention next year. He naturally will always be comapred to Favre as his first successor, and because Rodgers has been a Packer for three seasons there shouldn't be much of a learning curve in 2008.

As No. 4 used to say it was "Super Bowl or bust" for the Packers. With No. 16 stepping in, that sentiment is probably far-fetched at best. But all eyes will be on Rodgers now as he attempts to lead the Packers back to the postseason.