It's that time of the year!

I must say, this is my favorite time of the year! The sun is going down later, the days are getting warmer, and I just filled out five brackets for four different pools. I'm pretty stoked. It's NCAA March Madness - probably the most fun any sports fan can have in two weeks time. It's when we stop paying attention at work in attempt to listen to games on the radio or hold up bandwith to stream them online. I'm not allowed to do the latter in the office anymore. *Tear*

The #1 seeds in the tournament have well earned their places on the charts, but there are some teams to keep your eye on in the first round. There might be a few dark horses in the running. I had to split a couple first round games between brackets because I was pretty torn on some matchups. Cal and Louisville being the most questionable game of the tournament. Having attended school at Cal, and learned to love college basketball in Louisville, this was an emotional toss up for me. Louisville has mass potential if they go balls out, but Cal is definitely favored in this game if you're not a Cards fan.

Another game that could turn out a huge upset is Purdue and Siena. Purdue is without their top dog, Robbie Humell. Although Purdue proven to be a winning team throughout the season, they could easily be toppled by the team now being nicknamed "The Kings of Upsets," Siena. This will definitely be a game to watch that could possibly flip many peoples' brackets upside down.

I'm hoping to see Kansas, Kansas State, Villanova, and Kentucky in my Final Four (my favorite Final Four of the five brackets), with Kentucky taking it all against Kansas in the finals. Yeah, I know it's the most likely game when you look at the numbers. But I have money on this stuff.

I could go on and on, but we'll all have to just tune in this Thursday and hope we don't get too reamed for our lack of productivity over the next two weeks. Good luck!

More Pitino, please.

I have to really take a moment to defend Rick. So, the man made a drunken mistake in a closed restaurant after hours. The bitch obviously went bat-shit crazy on the poor guy, and dragged her husband into it. Rick did the right thing by opening up and taking responsibility for the incident. Am I condoning what he did? No, but give the man a break.

To have journalists drag his name through the mud for not landing another coaching spot in the NBA because of a 'fall from grace' with the Louisville Cardinals is just plain ignorant. He made a mistake. We all make mistakes.

Think of what an accomplished college basketball coach he is. Yeah, he didn't really shine in his previous run with the NBA, but I would never say he fell from grace in the NCAA.

And his infidelity to his wife has absolutely nothing to do with him not scoring a job with the Sacramento Kings. Get a grip.

NCAAF...dominating my headlines?

Now, I'm a woman. I like sports. You could even say that I love them.

But does anyone watch female sports? Let alone college female sports?

The only female sport I can own up to watching is curling during the winter olympics. Occasionally a game of womens hockey if I happen to be at my dad's house and it's on. He likes to make fun of the scandinavian last names. Total jerk, right?

I had to get it from somewhere.

Tom Brady's life is better than yours.

Yeah, I read that somewhere else. Good stuff.

There's a bubble protruding from my ceiling. I can't wait to move [this weekend], and I've been slacking on the updates.

One day until the March Madness NCAA men's basketball tournament begins. I hope you have your brackets ready. I have four different pools going.

You can join one on Facebook!

http://apps.facebook.com/thebracketchallenge/?page=pool&id=88545&wclc=ba-10

That should link you to it.

Have fun, and good luck teams!

Back in action.

I had a busy weekend. I know you all missed me. Apartment hunting in Los Angeles is a bitch.

Anyway, some super highlights of the weekend. Japan kicked Korea's ass in the World Baseball Classic on Saturday, 14-2. Daisuke Matsuzaka really owned that game.

Terrell Owens is moving to Buffalo. The Bills paid T.O. $6.5 million for a one year move. Not bad.

Team USA (fuck yeah) has bromance written all over it, and it's showing in their game. They took Venezuela 15-6 after ousting Canada in their opener 6-5. The dudes play again Wednesday.

Charles Barkley is a hit in jail. I've been told that he's wandering around and handing out autographs to inmates. There will be more on this later. I'm curious.

The Louisville Cards took the NCAA men's basketball Big East championship Saturday with their win over West Virginia. I watched the game. It was edge of your seat excitement. Go Cards!

David Beckham will be back in LA to play for the Galaxy July 1st. Becks is almost 34, still looking amazing, and is still the most sought after soccer player in the land. Hot.

It's almost here!

(image via betavega.com)

Get your brackets out, because March Madness is on the way. Selection Sunday is March 15th, with our first and second rounds starting up on the 19th. This is when things get out of hand. Bandwith runs low because we're all trying to stream three games on our work computers. Productivity drops because who the hell is working when a 12 seed just upset one of your final four? Some people even think it's okay to have no faith in their favorite teams just to win their bracket pool. Traitors? I'm not going to name names...Brad.

That's right folks. March Madness is almost upon us.

Pittsburgh remains a favorite amongst most, followed by Connecticut and UNC. Duke and Oklahoma look like they're going to be battling for that number four spot. The rest gets kind of messy after Louisville dropped quite a few slots.

I don't know who is going to take all, but I have a pretty good idea of what my brackets are shaping up to look like this year. So get your pencils out, and bring a box of tissue. This is one of the few times I get to see grown men cry.

And I love it.

800...and counting?

(image via CNN)

Jim Calhoun is somewhere poppin' bottles in celebration of his 800th with tonight as Connecticut dominated Marquette Wednesday night.

UConn is well on their way to the final four, and possibly a championship, in the coming weeks. Ranked in the top two spots in multiple polls, the Huskies are coming fierce.

More celebrations for Jimmy in the near future? It's looking good. Congrats!

Sooners...or later.

"I hate losing."

The words of Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel. Who doesn't? I've never in my life heard anyone say, "I love losing! It's awesome!"

Currently ranked third, and number two by some aforementioned pollsters, Oklahoma is in the hot seat after their second defeat Monday night against Kansas. The loss comes after the Sooners' star, Blake Griffin, suffered a knock in the head. He missed the second half of the Texas game Saturday, and failed to suit up Monday.

It looks like the Jayhawks are on their way to a conference title, and coach Bill Self might just earn himself a little coach of the year. No big deal. Especially when it's rumored to be a unanimous decision.

Although the Sooners waddled home with their tails between their legs last night, I think they learned a valuable lesson in team effort. Griffin can't carry your game. Look what happens when he's not there. Great game, but not great enough. We'll see what Oklahoma picked up in class last night when they face off Colorado Wednesday night in Boulder.

The most wonderful time of the year.

Honestly, screw Christmas. This is, by far, the most wonderful time of the year. NBA finals are closing in on us, and it's starting to look like we might have a repeat of last year. Kobe Bryant and his Lakers are 8 games up on the competition, with a 4-game winning streak. I'm not a huge Lakers fan, but when they're on a roll...you know. The Celtics are looking at a killer chance to up Cleveland by half a game tonight over Denver. But, at this rate, even if they manage to claw their way back into the finals, I think the end result is already apparent. We'll see what the coming weeks bring the NBA. Boston needs to sharpen up some tools a little bit. Call me crazy, I'd kind of just like to see Kobe eat it a little bit. That ego isn't going to fit in this city if we let it grow any further.

March madness is on it's way, and this is absolutely the best thing since sliced bread for me. I get two solid weeks of white knuckled distractions, lots of reasons to hit up the local brew spot with the guys, and before it's even all said and done, we get baseball. While most polls have their money on Connecticut right now, all four polls I've been keeping my eye on (AP, ESPN, RPI, and our very own Yahoo user's poll) have Oklahoma in second. UNC is taking third across the board, while Pittsburgh (ranked #1 by the Yahoo users), Louisville (go Cards! yes, I'm biased here), and Duke seem to be the three teams we'll be seeing fighting for their spot in the final four. As we know, anything goes at the beginning of this tournament. I'm thrilled to see who takes over my brackets.

With Manny Ramirez screwing with every team in the league, I'm curious to see where he ends up reporting for spring training. Although negotiations have intensified with the Los Angeles Dodgers, it's quite possible that his adamancy for a high ticket salary could leave him watching from the sidelines if he doesn't pick a dugout. Realistically, he'll end up somewhere. The question is where, and moreso, for how much.

The Boston Red Sox are weighing the strength of their team as they start training for their first full season without the powerhouse who managed to average a .396 in 187 at bats during 53 games after coming to the Dodgers mid-season through a three-way trade with Pittsburgh to give Boston left fielder Jason Bay. Although the Boston camp is talking optimisitcally, it will be interesting to see how the team fares without their wacky slugger.

(image via Yahoo! Sports)

Down in Florida, everyone is making a big deal out of a pulled hamstring. According to sources, New York Yankees short stop, Derek Jeter, was complaining about a sore right hamstring Sunday after drills. Jeter told press that "it's no big deal," and will continue training Monday. CC Sabathia, who apparently lost the right to have punctuation in his acronymic first name, also missed out on a day of training due to the flu. However, the left handed pitcher threw 40 pitches to teammates at batting practice the following day. The left-handed pitcher and batter is expected to open the Yankee season on the mound. Let's hope that $345 million infield proves to be worth all of that dough.

There will be much more said as the spring training games start rolling out, and we'll see how well these teams really work together. I'll be making some pretty happy travels out into the desert to check out some of these re-worked rosters as we make our way into the season in April.