The 2011 D-I Final and Frozen Fours are set!

When the smoke cleared, the number becomes 4. VCU Rams being the first 11 seed to make it to the men's Final Four since George Mason in 2006. They will play Butler in one semifinal, and on the other side, UConn plays Kentucky. Both semifinals at Reliant Stadium on Saturday.

The women's Final Four is interesting, because you have A&M, who beat Baylor on Tuesday night, against Stanford (not a surprise at all), and UConn against Notre Dame. Both semifinals Sunday at the Fieldhouse.

And speaking of Notre Dame, they will play Minnesota Duluth in one semifinal and North Dakota and Michigan in the other semifinal of this year's men's Frozen Four at the Xcel Center. One week from Thursday.

Chances are great for the Huskies or Irish athletic programs. We'll see.



Friday Jukebox 3.25.11: A Short Tribute to Loleatta Holloway.

As you may be aware, Loleatta Holloway passed away on Tuesday from heart problems, aged 64. Her work "Love Sensation" (1980) was sampled in several tracks...

Including her most famous collaboration with Mark Wahlberg, in the early '90s.



What's In a Name?

On opening day, it drew a huge crowd, but now the shit has just hit the fan, thanks to a thanks to a neighboring business.

Now this happened to be one of the best and most funniest names of a business ever! And it ranks up there with the likes of...

Just to name a few.

The AFL "Home & Away" Season Begins This Weekend! (Australian Rules Football)

That's right, a new premiership season of Australian Football League action begins this weekend!

It kicks off Thursday night (7:40pm Melbourne, 4:40am US Central), with the Blues and the Tigers at Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Also the defending premiers Collingwood Magpies will host the Power at the Docklands Saturday (2:10pm Melbourne, 11:10pm US Central)

Other games:
Geelong v St. Kilda, Melbourne Cricket Ground, Friday, 7:45pm Melbourne, 4:45am US Central
Adelaide v Hawthorn, Football Park, Saturday 7:10pm Adelaide, about 5:10am? US Central
Lions v Fremantle, Wooloongabba, Saturday 7:10pm Brisbane, 4:10am US Central
Essendon v Footscray, Docklands, Sunday 1:10pm Melbourne, 10:10pm US Central
Melbourne v Sydney, Melbourne Cricket Ground, 2:10pm Melbourne, 11:10pm US Central
West Coast v North Melbourne, Subiaco, 2:10pm Perth, 1:40am US Central

The expansion Gold Coast Suns will get a bye week before opening next Saturday night against Carlton at Wooloongabba.

AFANA has the TV times for the matches. AFL.com.au has live timing, scoring and radio!

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the other AFL (Arena Football League) is two weeks into their season!

Assessment of the NCAA D-I Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments, After First and Second Rounds.

The first and second rounds of the 2011 NCAA Division I men's and women's basketball tournaments are gone, as the "Sweet 16" is coming this weekend. So here's my surprises and disappointments of the first and second rounds of this year's tournament.

WOMEN

Disappointments:

• Louisiana Tech and McNeese State. Both the Lady Techsters and Cowgirls disappointed the home state crowd at CenturyTel Center this weekend. Especially the host Techsters.
• Marist. There will be a time where they'll make it to the Sweet 16.
• Vanderbilt. For a program whose women's program has more success than the men, this was a disappointment.
• South Dakota State. The Summit tourney winners for the second year in a row, yet again a disappoinment.
• Penn State. Another respectable women's hoops program, the Nittany Lions' went out in the second round to DePaul. However, their tourney efforts is being overshadowed by PSU's wrestling program, which for the first time since 1953, won the team national title this past weekend in Philly and with the legendary Cael Sanderson as coach!
• Rutgers. From Final Four a few years back to this.

Surprises:

• Gonzaga. Man has the success from the men's program transition to the women's program.
• (Wisconsin) Green Bay. Not a surprise, but you'll hear a lot more from their program in the years to come.

MEN

Disappointments:

• Michigan. Even the Fab 5 era won't save your ass. Still a great first round win, but got their asses kicked by Duke in the second round.
• Oakland Michigan. The Summit tourney winners was a big disappoinment after they got knocked of the first round. The Grizzlies, who defeated Tennessee early in the season, will be a strong force to come in the few years not only in the tournament, but also in Summit 9 competition.
• Princeton. Despite the close game with UK, the Ivy tournament winners could also make some noise next year. Still a valiant effort though.
• George Mason. Remember their '06 tournament run to Indy? There will be a time where they will do the same thing. Only time will tell.

Surprises:

• Richmond. Should be an impressive run for the Spiders if they can get through KU this weekend.
• VCU. The Rams, like the Spiders, have pretty much impressed a lot in the tournament too. It seems to me that it's their best tournament run to date. What would be awesome is if there would be an all Virginia national quarterfinal at the Alamodome on Sunday.

So there you have it. The Sweet 16 for the men and women are this weekend, as the path to either Lucas Oil Stadium or Reliant Stadium will continue for four teams.

As always, feel free to comment!

Friday Jukebox 3.18.11: A Short Tribute to Nate Dogg.

As you're aware, Nate Dogg passed away on Tuesday due to complication of several strokes, aged 41. He has went solo a few times, but worked with Warren G on "Regulate" (1994) and a few others. One on mind, is from the Lyricist Lounge 2 compilation, released in 2000 by RAWKUS. This is him, along with Mos Def and Pharaohe Monch, and a good track it is, "Oh No."

The official music video...

A Huge Weekend for the Sport Fan.

It is another big sport weekend here in the US, so here's a guide to what to watch or follow...

• NCAA Women's first and second rounds Saturday-Tuesday on the ESPN family of networks. Lady Techsters will play first round at the CenturyTel Center, and according to a report, CTC is sold out of its ticket allotment for the Techsters game against Rutgers, who made it to the Final Four a few years ago (and thus Don Imus and his "nappy headed hoes" comment). Southland tournament winner McNeese State (Cowgirls) will be in the other first round game at CTC, as they play A&M.
• NCAA D-I Men's 2nd round on CBS and Turner Sports. Love the reconstructed version of the 1993 CBS theme song.
• 12 Hours of Sebring, the American LeMans Series season opener. Listen live at Radio Lemans, the best motorsport announcing team on earth, and watch it on ESPN3. ABC will have a condensed taped version Sunday afternoon, counteracting with the Cup race from Bristol on Fox.
• NCAA D-I Men's Wrestling Championships and BELLATOR 37. Two good reasons to love combat sports. The NCAA D-I Wrestling Championships from Philly will air live on ESPN (the mothership) at 6:30pm Central (7:30pm Eastern), while BELLATOR 37, featuring the featherweight quarterfinals will air live on MTV2 at 6pm Central (7pm Eastern).

So there you have it, some good viewing options for this weekend!

BELLATOR 36...a report!

This was my first MMA event I've ever attended! I have been watching BELLATOR for the past few months, and I am happy with the product and how Bjorn Rebney and company are conducting business.

There were eight matches, make that seven. I arrived to see one of the local fights, but I'm sure the first match was cancelled because Josh Shockley was a late replacement in the lightweight quarterfinal match. He replaced Ferrid Kheder, who failed to make weight at the weigh-ins on Friday. All four lightweight quarterfinal matches ended in tapouts, or knockouts. Mike Chandler defeated Marcin Held late in the first round. Lloyd Woodard defeated Carey Vanier in the first round. Toby Imada defeated Shockley in the second round, and in the middle of the third round, Patricky Freire defeated "Razor Rob" McCullough. McCullough, a former lightweight champion at World Extreme Cagefighting, tapped out in the middle of the third round. Freire, Woodard, Imada, Chandler all move to the semifinals. The winner of this tournament gets a title shot against current lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez.

For the "local fights," Booker Arthur defeated Javone Duhon, Kevin Aguilar defeated Matt Hunt, and Chad Leonhardt defeated Kelly Leo. The Leonhardt-Leo match, I didn't really see, because after the Freire-McCullogh match, I left.

Here are some images from BELLATOR 36 lightweight quarterfinals tournament that took place this past Saturday at Shreveport's Municipal Auditorium!

The cage. It's round and NOT octogonal as opposed to let's say, strikeforce and UFC.

Two big screens in case you're in an area where your view is being hijacked by TV crew or one of the corner posts. Also the banners of the current division champions of BELLATOR.

Action inside the cage. Beginning of the Woodard/Vanier match.

 Ring girls! Before the Shockley-Imada match. 

More ring girls action! Before the McCullough-Freire match.

Freire-McCullough match about to begin. 

Freire-McCullough match underway. Round 1.

End of Freire-McCullough match, Friere by tap-out near the halfway mark of the second round.

Ticket stub.

Official program. 

ZUFFA acquires strikeforce! **RANT**

Is this the darkest day in MMA to date?

Saturday, en route to Bellator 36 at Shreveport's Municipal Auditorium, an hour before I left, I realized that ZUFFA LLC, the number 1 mixed martial arts promoter in the world, owners of Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Extreme Cagefighting, would acquire the number 2 MMA promotion in the world-Scott Coker's strikeforce.

And after I enjoyed a night of action on Showtime last Saturday with Marloes Coenen retaining the women's title in an epic fight with Liz Carmouche and Dan Henderson defeating Feijao for the lightweight championship, who knows where the organization will go from here.

Strikeforce was one of my favorite MMA promotions, and I have been following MMA for the past few months. But again, who knows what ZUFFA will do with this organization...oh wait, listen to what ZUFFA president Dana White has to say on the acquisition.

To me, as much as I hate Dana White, I hope he doesn't drain the shit out of strikeforce like he did PRIDE. I hope that Bjorn Rebney and everyone at Bellator (now the number 1 promotion in my opinion) wake up and keep making BELLATOR the number 1 alternative for MMA (and they put on a good show on Saturday) as opposed to the ZUFFA empire!

Bellator 36 lightweight quarterfinals at Municipal Auditorium Saturday night!

THE CARD:

**lightweight quarterfinals**

(69.75kg/155lb)

Freire v McCullough

Kheder v Imada

Woodard v Vanier

Held v Chandler

Winner of the tournament in the next weeks to come gets a title shot against current lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez.

PLUS LOCAL FIGHTS!!

Tickets are still available at Municipal box office on Texas Avenue, and at ticketmaster.com. Ring time for the lightweight quarterfinals is at 8pm. Local fights are at 7pm. Doors open at 6:30pm. Can't make it out there, it's on MTV2 (Comcast 141, and on dish and DIRECTV). Or find an online stream. Support real MMA action that's way better than the Zuffa empire puts out. If last Saturday's welterweight quarterfinals is an indication of what's to come (winner of the welterweights gets a title shot against the division champion, two time NCAA D-I wrestling champion Ben Askren), you're in for a treat! 

And if you like what you see on Saturday or at any past Bellator events, check out their OFFICIAL website!  

Friday Jukebox 3.11.11

Since it's March 11...hence the subject of Friday Jukebox is the Omaha, Nebraska-based band 311. And they're great, I listened to them before. In 1998, Soundsystem was released, and one of their biggest hits to date was "Come Original."

Happy 311 day! See y'all at the Municipal Saturday night for Bellator 36!

Happy Birthday to...

Texas Ranger Cordell Walker aka CHUCK NORRIS!!!

And for your enjoyment...a later season intro.

(NOTE: In the last few seasons of the show, Chuck sings the song.)



CBS Saturday nights will never be the same.

FILMED ENTIRELY IN THE STATE OF TEXAS.

And for all the Chuck Norris facts you can handle visit ChuckNorrisFacts.com. If you don't, maybe you'll get a roundhouse kick or two. 

Caption this! 9 March 2011

Friday Jukebox 3.4.11

Since this weekly post wasn't on my mind due to other issues, I picked a song that was on my mind all week long.

Before the likes of Kylie, Alison Goldfrapp, Sophie Ellis Bextor, etc. came along, there was...Stacey Q!

She is still alive to the day (I think), and never heard a lot of her music until a month ago. 1986 was one of the best years of great music, with Crowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over" and Patti Labelle and Michael McDonald (Doobie Brothers)'s EPIC collaboration "On My Own" leading the way. Also Kenny G's "Songbird" too. Those overshadowed Stacey Q's best track ever "Two of Hearts."

Ladies basketball bids farewell (or Farrell?) to Division I

A very historic weekend came to an end on Monday with the Ladies loss to WIU, however the game had it's very high when senior center Anne Farrell went over the 1,000 career point mark at the 36th minute of the game. She had 18 points. She joins forward Ashley Jackson and three other Ladies who've scored 1,000 in their careers at Centenary.

I also got some pics too...

The swan song as the Ladies lost 68-58 on Monday night.

This Summit logo will go away, replaced by the ASC logo.

So will these banners.

The Anne-O-Meter(SM). Inspired by a fan tracking the scoring whereabouts of former Gent Larry Robinson when he played collegiately at Centenary in the late '80s. The Anne-O-Meter(SM), pronounced uh-nom-e-ter, tracked the progress of Anne Farrell during Monday night's Ladies finale, as she reached career point 1000. She scored 18 points in the game.

The Ladies' bench once Anne hit career point 1,000. Then PA announcer Dennis Boddie made the announcement during time out.

After the game, the Anne-O-Meter at its finest.

More postgame randomness.

1004: A Space Odyssey. *cue Also Sprach Zarathustra*

(me in the left, Anne on the right)

And while on the subject of the Summit clearance sale. In the words of the Surprise Spruiker from Chaser's War on Everything: "Come on in to our massive Summit League clearance sale! Where all banners and everything related to the Summit League must go go go! To make room for all things ASC!"

Not familiar with the Surprise Spruiker:

That concludes the two thirds of what I call the "Farewell to Division I World Tour." Still come out and support Ladies and Gents spring sports such as baseball, softball and tennis!