05/05/05

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!!! And, congrats to all of the graduating seniors and to my accounting buddies who have earned their Masters Degrees, keep in touch and best of luck to all of you. It's weired being one of the 10 people I think not moving out of Oxford for the summer. All of the rental trucks and minivans are back in town, and I'm still here. But, my time is coming. I'm looking forward to the summer down here, nice, peaceful, quiet. I've even got a pool to chill by, how sweet is that!!!! So for now, the exit paper and the job search continue. I should be making progress in the job search, since May is when a lot of companies evaluate their hiring needs, I'll start hearing back from places. Right now, 9 resumes are out there, so I'm doing my part. We'll see how it goes.

Now, here are the results from the Ultimate NCAA Tournament Sweet 16:
East

• 88-89 Seton Hall 83 04-05 Illinois 72. While Illinois matched up with the athletic ability of Worthy and Perkins, they couldn't match up with the strength and versatility of Ramos, Gaze, and Darrell Walker. Illinois had trouble all year defending big people with those attributes, and this was no exception. And when Illinois helped inside, John Morton made them pay, scoring 22 points.
• 00-01 Duke 99 94-95 UCLA 90. The greatest attribute of this Duke team is their versatility. They can play any tempo, any type of basketball and still win. They did this when they lost Carlos Boozer in February of '01, adapting their style of play from a half-court team to a let's push it and jack up as many 3s as we can type of team. Ironically, it was Boozer who was big in this one, scoring 24 points on 10/10 shooting and grabbing 10 rebounds, playing like the difference maker he was when he came back from his injury in the 01 NCAA Tourney.

Midwest

• 75-76 Indiana 89 95-96 Kentucky 77. In another edition of the border war, the perfect team remained perfect, this time getting 21 points and 11 boards from Kent Benson to lead the charge. Every night, it's a different person leading this Indiana team.
• 77-78 Duke 87 78-79 Michigan St. 76. Another upset victory for this Duke team, as the Spartans ran out of Magic, literally. Mike Gminski may be the player of the tournament so far. Just another 19 point, 9 board performance for the big fella.

Southeast

• 82-83 Houston 92 01-02 Maryland 80. The Terps tried to run with Phi Slamma Jamma and it backfired. Michael Young had 21, and Akeem Olajuwon had a ho-hum 10 points, 10 boards, and 7 blocked shots.
  
• 87-88 Oklahoma 105 79-80 UCLA 81. Larry Brown's team ran out of magic as the Sooners ran them out of the building. Stacey King led the way with 26 points and 8 rebounds. How about this regional final??? Phi Slamma Jamma vs. the Run N Gun Sooners. Wowwwww.

West

• 92-93 UNC 95 98-99 Duke 87. Again, the team no one talks about simply goes out and beats another great team. The Tar Heels played the game on their terms, limiting Duke from the outside and controlling the paint. George Lynch, the human lunch pail, scored 25 and grabbed 15 boards for UNC.
• 61-62 Cincinnati 78 98-99 UConn 69. True old school is still alive as Paul Hogue and Ron Bonham were too much for UConn inside. Hogue led the way with 25 points and 9 boards.

In other whatif action, the Runnin Ramblers lost both of their games today, 109-104 and 125-96 (ouch). So, Coach Lavelle has decided to take the full-court press off and play half-court defense, while still running and gunning on offense. But, a certain football team from a city that begins with a C ends with an O and has a HICAG in the middle, a team known as DAAAA Bears won 25-6 to even their record at 1-1. The Punky QB known as McMahon threw for 260 yards and a TD.

Survivor is down to 5 after Gregg got voted out. The Apprentice is down to Kendra and Tana as Craig, as I predicted, couldn't cut it in the interviews. The moment of the night was Brian and Kristen, who are on Tana's staff for the last project, started fighting about the hats she wears. Classic.

I think I'm heading home for the weekend tomorrow, get away for a couple days, and after all, it is Mothers' Day weekend.