[Twitter.com/gregcote. Because it's free].
VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH? WELL, YEAH!: Play-in qualifier Virginia Commonwealth today becomes only the third No. 11 seed ever to reach the Final Four after stunning No. 1 Kansas. In today's Sunday notes column I made fun of lucky Kansas' easy path. Oops. Also today, 4-Kentucky in a small upset over -North Carolina. Friday's Final Four qualifiers were No. 8 seed Butler (upsetting No. 2 Florida in overtime) and 3-Conn (edging 5-Arizona). My bracket? It softly wept with Ohio State's ouster and has been sobbing since. Can't fit Butler with the Cinderella slipper -- not with a second straight FF appearance. But VCU? Yes.
Friday games: Two routs and two thrillers. No. 2 North Carolina spanks 11-Marquette and No. 1 Kansas -- the only surviving top seed -- literally shoves around 12-Richmond. Closer, much: 4-Kentucky stuns 1-Ohio State on a last-second shot by our Brandon Knight out of Pine Crest, and 11-Virginia Commonwealth eliminates 10-Florida State by one in OT.
Thursday games: No. 2-seed Florida laid claim that sex beats celibacy (or something like that) in ousting 3-Brigham Young, the program that punishes you for having premarital intercourse, 83-74. Big three-pointer in OT by local kid Kenny Boynton. Big game by BYU's Jimmer Fredette, but ultimately the ridiculously nicknamed Jimmer got dimmered. All three other results Thursday results were seed-upsets: 3-UConn over 2-San Diego State, 5-Arizona stunning 1-Duke, the defending national champ, and 8-Butler ousting 4-Wisconsin.
Through Sunday, entering the Final Four, 20 of 56 played in the men's NCAA Tournament have been upsets based on seeds, or 36 percent, although that includes six negligible "neighbor-seed" upsets such as a 9 beating an 8. (In the women's NCAAs entering entering Monday's Elite Eight games, it's 14 of 56 upsets so far, or 25 percent, including six negligibles).
My question, now moot but still of interest, Can a South Florida UM Hurricanes fan wish well for Florida and FSU in the NCAAs? Can you root for the state teams to represent, or do you feel quite the opposite? Take a dip in our poll and s'plain.
SEASON BETTING ODDS FOR MARLINS AND THEIR PLAYERS: Fresh from Bodog.com, Marlins wins over/under is 82, and they are 40-1 (tied for 19th) to win the World Series. Faves are Phillies at 13-4 and Red Sox at 9-2. The NL East stacks at Phils 1-3, Braves 4-1, Marlins 9-1, Bernie Madoff's Mets 16-1 and Nationals 30-1. Individually, Hanley Ramirez's batting over/unders are .305, 25 homers and 89.5 RBIs, and for Mike Stanton it's 34.5 homers and 92.5 RBIs. Josh Johnson's o/u is 15 wins, and he's tied-third for NL Cy Young pick, after Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum.
MARLINS SHOULD PURSUE RANGERS 3B MICHAEL YOUNG: Marlins are in desperate need of help at third base and in Texas six-time all-star Michael Young is available. Make it work, Florida. P.S., it'll likely never happen because Young makes a lot of money and Marlins are still on the cheap side. But we can dream, can't we? Click on Think Young for today's column by me on this. And in other Marlins news, MIKE STANTON IS A BLEEPIN' MONSTAH! The kid hit two three-run homers yesterday in his first spring game vs. major-league pitching after returning from injury. With good health, Stanton has a chance to be a 40-plus home run guy, Dwyane Wade in cleats in terms of power and the everybody-else-wants-what-we-got factor.
"STAY WHITE, MIAMI!": The Heat on Saturday will reveal the new logo for its 2011 playoff campaign, and it will be a return to "White Hot." (The team also has used black and red themes). "White Hot" reprises the 2006 title-year theme, made most notable at the championship parade celebration as club owner Micky Arison addressed the thousands of fans, many of them African-American. "Stay White Hot, Miami!" is what he meant to tell the crowd. But, um, he accidentally left out the word hot.
HEAT KING-O-METER UPDATE: Latest update on our unpopular King-o-Meter, tracking which of Heat's would-be Kings is having the better overall season. This is after 72 games, through last night's win over Philadelphia: LeBron James leading Dwyane Wade by 4,200.47 King points to 3,733.25 in our cumulative ranking factoring 10 statistical categories. However, Wade leads in games led, 38-34, after a season-high 92.10-King-point effort last night. (Regular updates whenever you see the crown symbol pictured).
SONY TENNIS ADVISORY: The Sony Ericcson Open tennis tournament has begun on Key Biscayne, the combined ATP/WTA event ranking as the sport's "fifth major." However, the absence of both Serena and Venus Williams, and therefore the unlikelihood that anyone will wear a garish outfit I can make fun of, lessens the chance we'll deal with the tournament much in this blog. Plus that leaves no top Americans to cheer for outside of Andy Roddick. Too many players with names like Agnieszka Radwanska. Yes I am a jingoist. Sue me. Also, Caroline Wozniacki of wherever-she's-from-it-ain't-here (Denmark, actually) has never won a major but ranks No. 1 in the world. Shouldn't that be impossible?
IT'S 'OC DOLPHIN' APPRECIATION DAY: Congrats once again to loyal blogite OC Dolphin, a.k.a. Raul Pares, for winning our recent March Madness Haiku Challenge. I invited him to send us a photo, he did, and so our champion is pictured at right. The narrow face and distinguished, salt-and-peppery mane give him a slight resemblance to Heat president Pat Riley unless I am mistaken. Which is always a distinct possibility.
WILL YOU STILL LOVE ME WHEN I'M...: Elton John turns 64 today. Happy birthday to one of the most successfully enduring figures in entertainment history, and a personal hero of mine for both his music and humanitarianism.
Check back. Be adding more stuff to this latest blogpost...
THE LIST: SPORTS' BIGGEST TWITTER STARS: The top 10 sports figures on Twitter based on current number of followers in millions:
1. Shaquille O'Neal 3.63 Basketball
2. Kaka 3.15 International soccer
3. Lance Armstrong 2.77 Cycling
4. NBA 2.36 League
5. Tony Hawk 2.33 Skateboarding
6. NFL 1.98 League
7. Serena Williams 1.92 Tennis
8. Dwight Howard 1.90 Basketball
9. Chad Ochocinco 1.84 Football
10. Paul Pierce 1.75 Basketball
Note: The Heat's LeBron James (1.58) ranks 11th.
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