February is gone! Time to move on to the juggernaut of a month that is March. March has to be in the hall of fame of months. It boasts the NCAA Tournament, St. Patty’s Day, and that first day it’s nice enough to play basketball outside. What’s not to like? Still the February reared its ugly head for a while too long this year and left us without much to talk about this week other than Olympic hockey fallout, or did it?

About those Olympics. Sidney Crosby, hero to hosers everywhere, returned to the Pittsburgh Penguins for his first game after his golden goal. The captain received a nice reception (though riddled with a few good natured boos), but the Penguins’ opponent wasn’t the best draw for Sidney to get the heroes’ welcome. The Buffalo Sabres were in town and though he sat out, American goaltender Ryan Miller received the loudest ovation following his MVP performance in Vancouver. Good stuff, Pittsburgh.  As if getting upstaged wasn’t enough, Crosby is looking for some of his gear that he shed during the celebration. If you stole it I suggest trying to buy a replica stick–as if you killed his pet in a 90′s TV show–and keep the real deal for your basement bar. Oh, and you can check out other great Crosby-shops here.

Maryland beats Duke, fans get excited. In a night where all seemed right in the world, Maryland upset Duke in thrilling fashion. It was senior night in College Park and the Terps sent Grevis Vasquez out with a win over the Blue Devils. After the win Maryland fans stormed the court… by the way, there was a whistle with 0.4 seconds left in the game when it looked like the game would be over and the students showed amazing restraint in a situation that was sure to create a preemptive storming. Commendable. The rioting after? Not so much. Here’s an idea though: next time Maryland beats Duke, they should travel to Durham and riot there. Standing around on your own streets is getting old. Right Sparty?

Spring Training kicks off. I think pretty much every team has played some kind of exhibition game at this point. The favorites to win it all based on what I’ve seen? The Blue Jays, hands down.  There has already been a point of interest, though. In a Giants-Brewers game, Barry Zito plunked Prince Fielder in retaliation for a celebration by Fielder last year late in the season. The Giants and Zito have long memories, which makes you think Zito would remember how to get an out or two. Hey-o!

Let the Delhomme sweepstakes begin!NFL free agency is in full swing with a handful of moves already. The Lions signed Nate Burleson, the Bears offered anyone and everyone a contract, and there was even a trade sending Antonio Cromartie to the Jets. The names to watch before the draft are headlined by Julius Peppers and a bunch of running backs.  What this really means is just a chance for some mock drafts to take another stab, speaking of which, Ray Lewis is not available.

Chick basketball. Not sure if you noticed, but UConn’s womens basketball team is something else. Their win on Monday marked the 69th straight win for the Huskies and finished out their regular season at 30-0. Their closest game all year was a 12 point win against Stanford, handing #2 Stanford its only loss of the season. UConn is one win away from tying the womens record for consecutive wins and looks to have a good shot at UCLA’s record of 88 straight wins set by John Wooden’s squads.  There are so many stats to quote about their domination, I would just suggest going to look at their schedule and results.

Apparently Barack Obama shot hoops with the UConn Women’s Basketball team yesterday.  Although reporters were not allowed to film the pick-up game, it appears that Barack did not lose to a girl:

Who won? Point guard Renee Montgomery offered the only report.

“He did!” she said. “The president can shoot!”

Whew, that would have been a bad one.  I can just picture Kim Jong Il making fun of Barack for losing to a girl.  With all the teams this president meets, I’m curious when actual work gets done.

Somehow the three days to start this week always seem to go faster than the days between the Selection Show and the first round games.  That could be due to the two days it took me to recover from a trip to Nashville where I did little other than watching games and watching live bands in bars.  Regardless, it’s time for the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament and it promises to be a great one.

(5) Purdue vs. (1) UConn- 7:07 ET

Here are a couple teams that could both be referred to as “hot” but in completely different ways.  Purdue barreled through the Big Ten Tournament, then won a couple of very close games in the tournament.  UConn lost early in the Big East Tournament (well I guess it had been going on for a few days), but they have looked unbeatable in their two tournament games, winning by a combined 2,035 points.*  A.J. Price has quieted most of the talk about missing Dyson, while Thabeet and Adrien are playing great inside.

My favorite part about watching UConn so far was when Texas A&M called a timeout about a minute and a half into the game, down 4-0.  Someone who wasn’t paying attention asked me why there was a commercial so soon and I told him a timeout and had to explain how dominant UConn was even though up only four.

Purdue is rugged enough to bang with UConn and athletic enough to keep up with them.  Hummel will be the key for the Boilermakers though.  UConn has dismantled teams so far, and when things aren’t looking good, you need a playmaker to bring you back into the game.  I think Purdue can survive a couple of runs from UConn and make a push at the end if Hummel is on his game.  First Team All-Big Ten center JaJuan Johnson could also help out immensely if he could draw a foul or four on Thabeet.  The refs owe the Big Ten one after that Michigan-Oklahoma atrocity.

I think the winner of this game will beat Memphis, but this is one that I really struggled to pick.  I think I filled out four or five brackets this year and in half I have UConn in the Final Four and in half I have Purdue.  The only thing that has changed since then is the performance of UConn in the first two rounds, so I’ll go 76-70 in favor of the Huskies.

*Perhaps an exaggeration.

(4) Xavier vs. (1) Pittsburgh- 7:27 ET

You can definitely spell Sweet 16 without an X, but your bracket better damn well have one in there on a third round line.  Xavier brings it year after year to the tournament and were clearly the best team of the four contending for a Sweet 16 appearance in their portion of the bracket.  Pittsburgh is the anti-Xavier.  Over-achieving in the Big Dance to them is not losing to a directional-state school in the first couple of rounds.  This year it was East Tennessee State that gave Pitt trouble, then a nail-biter against Oklahoma State.

While most think the close game against the Cowboys is reason for concern, I think OSU was playing some great basketball coming in and that Pitt took a major step forward in knocking them out.  The reasons to like Pitt are still the same as they have been all year.  They have a great point guard, a scary post player, and one of the best wings in the game.

Xavier plays great defense and can dominate on the glass.  That could be a problem for the Musketeers in tonight’s game though, because I don’t know if they have anyone who can match up with DeJuan Blair on the inside.  Their hope has to be to bring more energy to the glass and come with a number of their athletic forwards to get rebounds.  B.J Raymond and Derrick Brown, two of those forwards, will need to carry the load offensively, as they have the best match-ups with Pitt’s defenders.

In the end I think Pitt wears Xavier down and Fields leads the Panthers to a win down the stretch.  72-67, Pitt.

• The Hawks beat the Sharks in a shootout last night, 6-5.  That’s good, because if they had blown a 4-1 lead, then lost, I would have lost it.  [Sun-Times]
• Bradley, after this buzzer-beater the other night, advanced to the final of the CollegeInsider.com Tourney last night.  How many of these tournaments are there? [Tribune]
• Cuauhtemoc Blanco is not happy playing for the Chicago Fire.  Well first, he look angry all the time to begin with.  Second, this has to be the fault of the Bulls with those Spanglish jerseys. [FanHouse]
• John Hollinger makes a living breaking down numbers in the NBA.  I like to compare him to a weather man.  Are these NBA stats meaningless?  And where are the stats that tell me how often stars get calls? [The Big Lead]
• Amazing is happening again in the NBA.  Docksquad has some of the new videos from the league’s ad campaign.  [Docksquad]
• Remember the series finale of Seinfeld?  If you didn’t see it, Allen Iverson can tell you all about it.  [Slow Breaker]
• The Senate is going to hold hearings on the BCS.  Only senators from states with more than 15 electoral votes are allowed to participate.  And Notre Dame.  [Sharapova's Thigh]
• Fun with YouTube takes us back to a fun video of some guy with no life reenacting Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.  I also recommend the Mario Paint video.  [Mass Hysteria]
• Oh, and UConn basketball is in trouble.  Yet to be seen if we’re talking Alabama/Florida State “you got caught and you’re punished” trouble, or USC and Ohio State “you got caught, but it’s okay” trouble.  [Yahoo Sports]

Some slogans, ad campaigns, and catchphrases just get old.  I’ve always thought March Madness would be one of those things.  Great advertising tool and apt name for a time of the year every sports fan can get into, but it’s so omni-present this time of year from everything from sports shows to used car ads.  Every year though, it proves true, and every year something happens that is so out of the ordinary that “madness” takes on a unique meaning.  This year, it happened early in the season.

Putting aside the fact that teams like Kansas, Clemson, Pitt, and Oklahoma took early exits last night in their conference tournaments, there was one game that was truly historic.  Syracuse and Uconn played one of the best college basketball games I have ever seen.  It took six overtimes and six times as many big shots to decide this one, with the Orange coming out on top.

Uconn was down seven with four minutes left and down two when Kemba Walker scored to tie with 1.1 on the clock.  Then Devendorf hit a shot that would have made this game amazing by itself.  A prayer of a pass ended up with Devenforf hitting a three, but he released it about .01 too late and it went to overtime.  Six times.

Syracuse fell behind in each of the first five overtimes, but thanks to great play from Johnny Flynn and excellent free throw shooting, they always managed to come back.  Then in the sixth overtime they ran away with it to win by 10.

What is it with Syracuse in the Big East Tournament?  They should try and play their home games in the Garden; Knicks fans would love it.  For the Orange to suffer the devastating reversal at the end of regulation, then come back like that in the first five overtimes was amazing.

What does all of this action today do to the one seeds?  You have to think North Carolina is a lock, and it’s hard to see the Big East getting three with Uconn and Pitt losing tonight.  Oklahoma may have played their way out of a one seed with a loss to Oklahoma State.  I guess that means Michigan State has a good shot if they can win the Big Ten Tournament.  Anyway, it was an amazing night, and we’re just getting started!