Show Me The Money

Opening Thoughts: Tomorrow is PAY DAY!!!!! And that pretty much is all I have to look forward to tomorrow as another long Monday of class awaits. Add studying for Friday's micro exam and it's going to be a fun one. Anyway, one of my all-time favorite movies was on, "Breaking Away". I highly recommend you see it. It's a feel-good story that has some good humor, so make sure you check it out.

Ok, after that Reading Rainbow like statement, time for hoops:

• Purdue 84, Michigan 55. NIT!!!!! NIT!!!!! NIT!!!!!! Are you kidding?
• George Washington 82, Dayton 73. Dayton finally goes on the road to play a quality opponent and as expected go down in defeat. The Flyers fought hard, and will be really good in a year or so, but the Atlantic 10 is looking more and more like a 1-bid conference, most likely going to the conference tournament champ.
  
• Miami 74, Akron 63. How about them Redhawks??? 23 and 10 from Danny Horace and 57% shooting from the field has given the Redhawks a 2 game lead in the MAC East through conference play. Miami still has trouble holding onto big leads, as a 21 point second half lead was whittled down to 4 before Danny Horace put the dagger in the Zips, hitting a 3 to push the lead back to 7 with less than 2 minutes left. The Hawks look to continue their momentum at Toledo Thursday night. Bracket Buster matchups should be released very soon, and Miami is looking at a nationally televised affair after today's win.
• Florida International 118, Arkansas State 114. So you're asking yourself and me, why is this game on here??? Well, BECAUSE IT WENT TO 5 OVERTIMES!!!!! Let's hope for one of these come March when the pressure is really on. By the way, the Division 1 record for most overtimes is 7, when Cincinnati beat Bradley 75-73 in 1981 (pre-shot clock era)
• Washington 79, Arizona St. 70. The Huskies are back on top of the Pac10 after this game, which saw Nate Robinson break out of his shooting slump, scoring 23 in the win. The Huskies forced 21 turnovers and held Ike Diogu to 14. 22/25 from the foul line on the road isn't bad either.
• Notre Dame 78, UConn 74. Notre Dame stays in the NCAA race with this win. UConn's young guns played well, but not well enough as the Irish, despite only making 6/23 3s, only committed 8 turnovers and grabbed 15 offensive rebounds, a very telling number when you consider how much size UConn has compared to ND. Chris Thomas only went 4/14 from the floor, but he handed out 8 assists and showed some leadership down the stretch.
  
• Maryland 79, Georgia Tech 71. The Terps come away with sustained momentum after their best week of the season. Jarret Jack and Will Bynum combined to make a dismal 6/26 from the floor, which can't happen if you're a Tech fan. The Jackets hung in, but every surge was answered by Maryland. Nick Caner-Medley followed his outstanding effort at Duke with another one tonight, scoring 19. Fear the Turtle!!!!

• Duke 100, Virginia Tech 65. I don't think Va. Tech is this bad; there's a reason Duke hasn't lost back-to-back home games in 9 years (I believe that's the stat). This was the Duke that we've seen all year. Intense, focused, and playing their hearts out, which wasn't the case the other night. This was the old Duke, that came out and jumped on teams because of their superior talent. That superior talent isn't there this year, but that intensity is, and Duke now knows they must bring it every night to win. They can't rely on just talent alone.
  

Marat Safin won his 2nd grand slam title, defeating Aussie hopeful Lleyton Hewitt in 4 sets. Justin Leonard won his first golf tournament in two years, winning the Bob Hope birdiefest. Congratulations to the Iraqi people for staging their first democratic elections. They proved to the world today they are fit and ready for democracy.

Oh boy, here comes Monday......