Not bad for March 1st

Tonight and tomorrow morning we're supposed to get freezing rain, which could make for a long and excruciating commute into work. I can deal with thunderstorms, somewhat deal with snow, but freezing rain and ice, I don't like it. I like to feel the flow when I drive, feel the car and the music, driving fast enough to get somewhere, but slow enough that I'm not breaking any laws, and smart enough where I can see what other people are doing and have time to anticipate what they're going to do. With ice, I can't really do any of that except go slower than I want, which makes me a little nervous. So hopefully the temperature stays above freezing and the weather is ok in the morning.

An action packed in hoops for the 1st of March, let's get to it:

• Beginning with the alma maters, Northmont defeated Stebbins 75-36 to reach Saturday's sectional final against top seed Fairmont. Stebbins defeated Northmont in the regular season, but the Bolts are back at full strength and are someone you don't want to face. Congrats guys, go get em Saturday!!!!
• Miami bounced back from their loss at Kent by defeating Bowling Green on the wind-swept plains. With Akron's loss to Buffalo tonight, a Miami win and Akron loss Saturday would give Miami the #3 seed in the conference tournament, putting them opposite Kent and Akron in the draw, just where the Redhawks want to be.
• Florida St. 79, Duke 74. The only thing FSU did wrong was fail to control its crowd at the end. The security was nonexistent, which is inexcusable, especially when you play Duke in the biggest game of the year. Anyway, Duke couldn't stop the inside couplet of Alexander Johnson and Al Thornton. Shelden Williams and JJ Redick put up 50 points, but no one else is helping with the scoring, which is a problem. FSU had to have this game for a chance at an NCAA bid. Now with a couple of more wins, they might get a spot.
• Texas A&M 46, Texas 43. In a game the Aggies had to have for their NCAA chances, Acie Law hit a 3 from Houston to send Aggieland into bedlam. But how can Texas look so mediocre after looking so good vs. Kansas the other night? A&M played great defense I'll give them that, but if you're Texas, how does LaMarcus Aldridge get only 6 shot attempts??? And what was going on in PJ Tucker's head during that last timeout??? How could he not know there were only 10 seconds on the shot clock after the timeout, where he failed to even look at the basket??? Inexplicable. But A&M is in the same position as FSU, win a couple of more games and they're probably in.
• Indiana 70, Purdue 59. This game was close until the last 5:30 when IU got hot from the 3 point line. IU shot 71% from the floor in the 2nd half after shooting just 27% in the 1st. Indiana, barely, is still alive.
• Kentucky 80, Tennessee 78. This probably gets Kentucky into the Dance, winning at Knoxville. UK shot 58% from the floor 45% from 3, which are really good numbers for them. If Tennessee can't create turnovers with their pressure, they're in trouble because they don't play team defense and they don't rebound. Randolph Morris: 22 points and 11 boards for UK, that needs to become the norm for them.
• Arkansas 80, Mississippi St. 70. Arkansas continues to roll. They now have 20 wins and are probably in the field. The SEC will get 6 teams in, somehow. I don't think they'll last very long, but they'll have 6 in.

And tomorrow begins the inaugural World Baseball Classic. It will be interesting to see how this goes and how popular it will become. I think it has the potential, key word being potential, to be huge. Latin America and the Caribbean love baseball almost as much, if not more in some nations, than soccer. They will really get into this. Whether the rest of the world follows is the question, especially in the US since many aren't ready for baseball until college hoops is over.

If you want to know why American car companies are in trouble, read the article on the front of today's Wall St. Journal. A former GM worker, who was originally hired in 1972, has been idle since 2000 except for a few weeks, yet he still makes $31/hour, adding up to $64,000/year, not including benefits and health care?!??!?! For the last 6 years, he's taken classes on how to work at a Casino and how to play Trivial Pursuit among other things. And when he's not doing that, he sits in a window-less room with other idle workers for 8 1/2 hours per day, doing nothing. He clocks in, gets his 45 min. lunch, clocks out. It stinks that jobs are getting cut, but this has to happen if GM and Ford are to be competitive with Toyota, Honda, Nissan, etc.

No ice tonight, please, pretty please....