When the final buzzer rang at the end of the fourth quarter at AT&T Stadium last night, it was the Connecticut Huskies 60-Kentucky Wildcats 54, a win that would earn UCONN’s fourth NCAA title and Connecticut’s Shabazz Napier, his second All-American title. In a game featuring the highest combined seeds in the history of the national championship game, the Wildcats were looking for their ninth NCAA title, instead they lost for the fourth time. UConn is now 4-0 in championship games.
mad·ness \ -noun
1. the state of being mad; insanity.
2. senseless folly: It is sheer madness to speak as you do.
3. intense excitement or enthusiasm.
4. frenzy; rage.
While Websters Dictionary describes madness in the terms above, the arrival of March signals a unique type of madness that goes along with the long-awaited thawing of winter’s ice and snow, chirping birds, sprouting buds and evolving green landscapes. In the midst of all this gentleness lurks a recurring madness that blows in with March and builds to a frenetic conclusion in the final weeks of the month. This seasonal insanity is aptly called “March Madness”; and among its symptoms are the strong growing weak, the weak growing strong, and constant talk of Cinderella.
(OU’s season… almost)
The major college football conferences are usually listed as the SEC, Pac-10, Big 10, ACC, Big 12, and Big East. Out of all the major conferences this year the Big East finds itself in the unique position of not having a single one of its teams among the top 25 of either the USA Today or Associated Press polls. Nevertheless, the conference has been well represented in prominent bowl games in recent years. Some of the conference’s non football factory schools have also become bigger players on the national football scene, especially Rutgers, Cincinnati and Connecticut.
This list is current through the end of 2008:
Where to begin? How about with betrayal? Coaches getting canned always makes for a salacious topic. Just for kicks, let us know how many synonyms for betrayal you spot. (We’ll put the over+/under- at 7.5.)
Our survey of the Top Ten Greatest College Football Games continues with Part 2:
6.) 1982: California vs. Stanford
This is the first game on the list in which there no national title aspirations in play. Despite that the game wasn’t just any other. This was the 85th Big Game, the name the annual rivalry game between Stanford and Cal has received. Both teams had struggled through difficult seasons; Cal was out of already contention for a bowl game and Stanford’s bowl aspirations depended on their winning the game. It was also John Elway’s last regular season game at quarterback for Stanford.
In the annals of history and in the mythologies of many cultures there are stories of formidable foes meeting to do battle. The rivals may be virtually equal, but only one can ultimately emerge victorious.
History has seen some truly epochal rivalries: the Romans against the Carthaginians, Elizabeth I against Mary, Queen of Scots, Napoleon against Wellington.
Mythology has given us the epic clash between the Greeks and the Trojans, with the fight between Hector and Achilles being a focal point of the story.
Four schools, one national championship….the NCAA’s Men’s Final Four is upon us as this year’s March Madness continues underway in a frenzy that’s sweeping the nation for yet another season!
The vertically UNchallenged, quick footed, fast handed, 3-point throwin’, movin-and-a-shakin’, boppin-and-a-dunkin’, flyin’-through-the-air-like-Mike men of college b-ball have rounded up their teams from the four regions of the country for a month long trek across rough terrain and jungle-like environments in a journey that would lead only the strongest of the strongest to the oasis of the Alamodome. In the heart of Texas these ambitious athletes fight through sore muscles, pulled tendons, and fractured fingers for the long awaited and eagerly anticipated rights to the war trophy that would grant the best team the privilege to bear the title of “NCAA 2008 Champions” and earn them the rights to private and public gloating until next year’s march to madness starts all over again.