Winter Storm Warning

Opening Thought: Last night, the consensus weather forecast was we would get AT MOST one inch of snow today. About 5 inches of snow later, I have absolutely had it with this weather. And, as if we haven't had enough snow (I think we're now at 27" for the winter, which is a lot for this area), we're expected to get another 4 to 6 inches on Saturday. C'mon spring.....

Not a whole lot going on sports-wise, but let's take a look:

• Illinois survived to remain one of the four unbeatens, needing overtime to defeat Iowa 73-68. This game was hard to get a handle on because there was no flow to it. The first half was ugly, neither team playing well, until an 8 minute stretch right before and just after halftime that saw the Illini go ahead 47-34 after a Luther Head 3. Then, Illinois went in the tank and Iowa upped their play, with the game turning on Iowa getting a layup, a steal off of a bad inbounds pass, and another easy layup and a foul. Suddenly, in a matter of seconds, the game went from Illinois getting ready to run away to Iowa getting back in it. Illinois was flat throughout. They didn't play with the usual energy I had seen them bring in their other games. When the game was over, there was no celebration, it was more relief. Iowa did expose Illinois's weakness, by playing physical against the Illini's big people. James Augustine and Roger Powell combined to go 3/21 from the floor, Iowa's front line went 8/18. The good news for Illinois, is that Iowa may be the biggest, most physical team they play all year. Think about it. UNC and Wake like to run, Oklahoma St. is physical but not very big, Kansas isn't big, Duke isn't big, Syracuse is, but they play zone, so Illinois may be able to get by. However, they can't come out flat and expect to win tough games, specifically their date at Wisconsin next Tuesday night.
• P.J. Tucker was ruled academically ineligible for Texas. Tough break for Texas.
• West Coast games are still going on, including Gonzaga getting upset as we speak. We'll talk about them tomorrow.
• Ben Roethlisberger will have a great game and Pittsburgh will beat New England, that's my prediction. All of this talk about him regressing will only motivate him that much more to play well on Sunday.
• There's talk of moving forward in the NHL negotiations. I hope they don't come to an agreement, that way more college basketball can be televised.
• Tom Lehman shot a 62 in the first round of the Buick Invitational. I guess he's trying to make his own Ryder Cup team.

Tonight was the premiere of the 3rd edition of The Apprentice. This time, it's Book Smarts vs. Street Smarts, and tonight, Street Smarts won by selling more specialty sandwiches during a shift at Burger King. The collegians shamed themselves by not working as a team, and by coming up with the DUMBEST promotional idea, throwing a wiffle ball into a hole for something, I could never figure it out. The guy running the promotion, Danny, who is married to his guitar, can't dress himself and took an entire day to come up with this. But Project Manager Todd was let go because he couldn't manage Danny, couldn't do anything because he didn't get trained, and just couldn't lead. He made terrible decisions and was the first to go. I think a woman is going to win this time, a hunch.

I started looking at some job descriptions, and it was pretty exciting to see what's out there and seeing that I'll actually be qualified for these jobs in a few months. The locations aren't too bad either. If I had to preference where I'd like to work right now, Chicago would be my #1 choice. I've only been there once, but I loved my visit there. Atlanta and the DC area are intriguing as well and so too is, sorry Mom and Dad, California, especially San Francisco. We'll see what happens, there's still a ways to go before I have to make that decision.