The final four is set. It consists of four lame teams, none of which I am excited to watch. Duke, the team I hate second most in the country, beat the last Texas team this afternoon making it a Final Four without a Texas team. I thought this year would be a good year for Texas teams but it just goes to show you that it is a lot harder to select the winning teams in this madness. The team I hate the most in the world, Kentucky, lost last night to West Virginia. I was ecstatic. John Calipari is a cheater and should not be allowed to coach in the NCAA. As long as he never wins, I can die a happy man. My brackets busted, my sleepers stayed asleep, and supposed champion lost in the second round to Northern Iowa. This was a mad march indeed.

After finally moving past the first round of the NCAA Tournament, BYU crumbled against Kansas St on national television. BYU ended a nine-year streak of first round losses on Thursday against the University of Florida. We needed two overtime periods to get the job done but at the end of the night, the cougars ended up on top. On saturday we played our second round game against Kansas St. BYU was a heavy underdog but the match-ups were favorable to BYU. Kansas St has very good guards but not the best big men. That pretty much describes our cougars. We rely on guard play and just hope our bigs don't mess things up. Jimmer Fredette came into the game coming off of a 37 point performance against Florida. We expected a similar performance against Kansas St, but instead received a disappointing show of a guard who was scared out of his mind. Jimmer Fredette had dominated the Mountain West guards but had his hands full with the Kansas St guards. He was ripped cleanly several times and looked scared to bring up the ball. Jimmer started forcing passes and shots which widened the gap between us and Kansas St. The game proved that Jimmer is not yet ready to enter the NBA and should probably work on lateral quickness and his separation moves from faster guards. Despite the loss, I am proud of our Cougars and look forward to the next season.

March Madness is upon us. BYU is finally favored to win a first round game which would end a streak of first round losses that started when I was a baby. Their first round match-up is against a struggling Florida team. They started off hot at the beginning of the season but have cooled down as the season progressed. BYU has played very well against many of their opponents this season but seem to struggle against teams that have a dominant big man or against teams that excel at rebounding. These things are actually weaknesses of Florida. They do not rebound well and do not have a dominating big man. College basketball is a guard's game and I feel that our guards at BYU are good enough to end the streak of first round losses. Unfortunately, I do not think they are good enough to get past Kansas State in the second round. Oh well. I wont be greedy. I will take whatever I can get.

It is finally here. The intramural basketball tournament is upon us. Basketball intramurals only come during the winter semester and it is something I look forward to all year. It gives the opportunity to those high school ballers, who could not hack it at the college level, to show their stuff.

The regular season began in early January and the tournament is beginning this week. It is a long tournament that will take many games to reach the championship but I have confidence in my team’s ability.

Unfortunately for my teachers, I will be focusing more on intramurals than my studies. Honestly, if necessary, I will probably skip a class or turn in an assignment late so that I do not miss a game. I know this sounds foolish and immature but it is something that I look forward to. It is a chance for this old man to relive his high school glory days.