March Madness Rolls/Skates On

As March Madness rolls on there's been a lot of great action on both the ice and the hardwood this weekend. And as we speak arguably the greatest month in all of sports is coming to a climax. Let's regroup...

Ohio St. and UCLA punched their tickets to the Final Four Saturday. Also Michigan St. and Maine booked theirs to the Frozen Four. A few things really either surprised me or stuck out to me here:

• I was really surprised that Ohio St. was not only able to win but to really run away with it at the end. I mean, they really made this score look ugly
  
• The talented Jayhawks club being so unable to respond. I picked UCLA to win, but I figured that the Jayhawks wouldn't just die like that. Watch out now...because Bill Self is quickly becoming into that coach with lots of talent who "Can't win the Big-game". Actually thus far he can't even get there...
  
• Maine was the first team to punch a ticket to the Frozen Four in St. Louis...This came as a bit of a surprise to me and definitely not in my predictions.


• Thus far the Frozen Four tournament has seemingly had more upsets than the Bball tourney.....who'da thunk it!


• Oden really stepped it up after a horrible game in the sweet sixteen against Tenn...I'm guessing he felt he had something to prove.


• So, with Notre Dame losing to Michigan State that means that 3 of the 4 #1 seeds are out of the Frozen Four Tourney after just 2 days of play..once again my predictions never foresaw such an abundance in upsets! But you still gotta love it.
  
• The UND Fighting Sioux beat Michigan, as predicted, 8-5. Yea I thought they'd win, and as the highest-scoring team in the country I knew Michigan could light it up but I never imagined 13 goals! A lot of people are going to try to pin some "bad goaltending" on Lamoureux but I'm putting it on the Defense. If it weren't for some tough saves on Lamoureux's part you may have seen Michigan hit double-digits.
  
• Afflalo played quite a bit better for UCLA than did most of the more-talented Kansas starters (in my opinion). Afflalo is a great college player and may win a championship this year, but I think there are a lot of guys on the Kansas starting 5 who will make better pro's. Any thoughts?
  
• I will be out of town until late tuesday so Stefan will be in charge for the next few days. You can expect to hear from me on Wed.

Alright, as a Sioux fan I have to do a quick plug. The UND Fighting Sioux will face-off against the Minnesota Golden Gophers tomorrow in what looks to be the game of the tournament (in my opinion anyways). The puck drops at 5 o'clock. You should all tune in because this one is a dandy.

I feel like this game really could go either way. They both play each other really tough and have exchanged blows all year long. But I think the Sioux can win this one, not because I'm biased or will be screaming my lungs out in support or anything. But rather because I was surprised at Minnesota's near 1st round meltdown to Air Force. It had me thinking Holy Cross all over again! And because the Sioux have been really excited about getting a rematch after the tough loss just last week in the WCHA championship and they're ready to stick it to em'. Regardless of who wins this game I think either team would have a cakewalk to the championship.

So, the moral of the story is:

Give College Hockey a chance
Watch the rest of the Elite 8 games tomorrow
Enjoy March because it is amazing
annnnnnnnnd..........GO SIOUX!