36 hours until Meeechigan

A year ago, to the day:
It was a warm, spring-like day in Oxford with temperatures in the 60s. It wasn't quite that warm today, it got up to around 55 here in Dayton and the breeze was a little chilly, but it still felt like spring.

I mentioned that Illinois and North Carolina would be my dream NCAA Championship game, and hey, it happened. It wasn't the best game of the Tourney, but it was still very good. This year, I think the championship game I'd like to see would be Duke vs. UConn. Right now, UConn is the only team capable of beating Duke.

One team I mentioned you would have to look out for in the Tourney last year was Bucknell. Well, Bucknell knocked off Kansas in the 1st round and have played well so far this year. I don't have my ultimate sleeper yet, but I'll let you know when I do.

Funny thing is, I didn't pick Bucknell over Kansas and I didn't have Illinois and North Carolina in my championship game. Maybe I'll finally learn this year.

Note to ESPN Classic: If you're going to rerun the same program over and over, instead of showing the 1991 Podunkaville Bowling Classic or the Tyson/Douglas fight for the 156th time, why not show the Miracle On Ice???? Everytime I see it or the movie, "Miracle", I can't help but choke up at the end. What a great moment.

Here are some other things ESPN Classic should rerun repeatedly:
-1992 Kentucky/Duke basketball
-1988 World Series Game 1, Kirk Gibson's homerun
-2003 Fiesta Bowl, Ohio St./Miami
-2005 Rose Bowl, Texas/Rice
-1994 Eastern Conference Finals Game 7, Rangers/Devils
-1986 Masters Final Round, Jack Nicklaus
-1999 Ryder Cup, final day comeback by USA
-1995 Duke/Carolina basketball

I was thinking about making a Michigan CD for the trip up Saturday, but there aren't many songs that focus on Detroit and/or Michigan. Detroit is Motown of course, the Hit Factory, but none of those were about Detroit or Michigan. In my search, I found some interesting rap songs about Detroit, interesting in the fact on how crude they were. So I'll stick to the Motown groups.

Talk about a tradition that needs to end, 345 people were killed in a stampede during a symbolic stoning ritual at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. At least another 270 were injured. Muslims stone a devil in one of the Grand Mosques in Mecca, but there are so many in a tight place trying to get a shot at the devil, causing the stampede. This isn't the first time this has happened. In fact, I'm not sure what the tradition is, the stoning or the stampede. In 1990, 1400 people died in a similar stampede, and 2 years ago, more than 250 died in a stampede.

Tomorrow, the packing begins.