It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Well... more serious topics will have to wait. It's on to the finals. The most exciting and important tournament... The two best teams make it to the end... the way it should be. Both Illinois and North Carolina showed their dominanace this weekend, handling quality opponents with relative ease. It should be a great game tomorrow, and I can't really say that I have a favorite. I'm well out of the bracket picking at this point, so I can sit back, relax, and enjoy a great game.

I'm all about the Cinderella and the upset. I'm a mid-major guy, pulling for my beloved Ball State Cardinals, so I am usually most interested in the first weekend, with my interest waining as the tournament goes on. After a while it gets somewhat tiresome to see the same old teams playing for the championship, so I tend to tune out as things get out of the upset stage and into the top seed stage. But this year has been different... so many good games with great finishes has kept me in it until the end. And, oh yeah, the Dookies went home early. Gotta love that...

As a parting shot for Michigan State, if coaches of other programs (read: Buckley, Tim in particular) are not watching tapes of the Spartan program to try to glean tips for improving their rebounding (particularily on the offensive end), they are certainly not paying attention to this tournament. What a great display of defense and rebounding the Michigan State team put on these last few weeks. Izzo is a master at getting tough play out of his guys, even if they are out-manned.