NCCA tournament

My order of preference among the four teams remaining in the men's NCAA basketball tournament:

1. Butler University

Eric says that Butler coach Brad Stevens reminds him of me. He also says that about Obama. I would like to be a combination of Brad Stevens and Obama. I would give the best pre-game speeches ever.

2. Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU)

Brad Stevens was the hot young coach last year after Butler's Cinderella run to the championship game, where they lost to Duke when a half-court shot at the buzzer clanged off the rim. This year's hot young coach is VCU's Shaka Smart. Last year Brad Stevens chose to stay at Butler. Eric thinks Shaka Smart is more likely to bolt to a major-conference school.

3. University of Connecticut

UConn coach Jim Calhoun is the cranky old man among these four coaches. But I still wouldn't want to play cards against him.

4. University of Kentucky

Coach John Calipari is a sleazeball, albeit a rich and successful one. He took his two previous college teams, UMass and Memphis, to the Final Four, but both schools had to forfeit their wins for NCAA violations involving payments and perks to players and their families. In both cases, however, Calipari had already moved on to a more lucrative position (he has an 8 year, $31.65 million contract with Kentucky). Calipari is happy to recruit players who have no intention of graduating and just want a platform to showcase their talents for the NBA. And he's been successful at having players drafted by the NBA - in the last NBA draft five players from Kentucky were selected in the first round (a record for one school), including #1 overall pick John Wall. Note, however, that despite five NBA first-round picks, that team did not win the national championship, losing in the regional finals to West Virginia.

Unfortunately, my order of preference is probably the reverse of their likelihood of prevailing. But in a single-elimination format, you never know. That's one reason I love the NCAA tournament!

On the women's side, Stanford has reached the Final Four for the fourth straight year (but no championships during that stretch). If they beat Texas A&M on Sunday, they will likely face UConn in the championship game for the second straight year. UConn has won the last two championships, going undefeated both seasons. During this regular season, however, Stanford snapped UConn's NCAA-record winning streak at 90 games (UConn's only loss of the season).

Go Cardinal!

Ethan