Sorry for the lack of updates in the past month and a half. With classes, midterms, and tutoring, I’ve been extremely busy. That being said, I will try and update the blog more often in the future. This post is dedicated to Mr. Zachary Epstein, who requested I update my blog.
NCAA Tournament
So I’m obviously a bit late on this seeing how its March Madness and it is currently April 2, but let me give some thoughts on the tournament. First off, isn’t it ironic that it’s called March Madness yet the Final Four is always played in April? I guess April Awesomeness just doesn’t sound as great as March Madness. The main storyline as we head into the final championship weekend is that for the first time in history, all four #1 seeds have advanced to the Final Four. My own bracket predicted two of those #1 seeds (UNC and UCLA), but wrongly had two #2 seeds (Georgetown and Texas) as well. Georgetown was probably my shakiest pick of the four teams – they hadn’t ever looked like an elite team during the regular season. Then again, I simply didn’t have enough faith in Bill Self to not blow a NBA-talent filled team and lose in the Elite 8. On the other side, I just didn’t think Memphis’ poor free throw shooting would hold up (and it almost didn’t) but they shored up the free throw shooting and their stars shined (Derrick Rose is so legitimate, it’s not even funny).
I am still standing by my bracket in predicting UNC over UCLA for the national title. I’ll even throw in a little score for you: 85-79. I simply think UNC is playing the best out of the four teams remaining and has the best playing style to counter its potential opponents. UNC’s high-tempo game will be a huge advantage against Kansas and their talented bigs, but to counter, UNC has their own great big men (Hansborough, Ellington, Green, Stephenson) to contain Kansas. It will be a very fun weekend indeed, and as a moderate UNC fan, I’d love to see them win one (more for all of my friends down at UNC than anything else). The great thing about this Final Four is that if any of the four teams starts clicking on all cylinders, any team legitimately has a shot at the title.
Any analysis of the tournament so far would be remiss if it did not discuss the amazing run by Stephen Curry and the Davidson Wildcats. Notice how I put Stephen Curry ahead of his team. The young man (an extremely humble, modest, down to earth kid) would never do such a thing, but anyone watching those four incredible games has to be serious with him/herself – Stephen Curry is the reason they reached the Elite 8 and were one three pointer from advancing to the Final Four. I was able to watch most of the Gonzaga game, a bit of the Georgetown game, all of the Wisconsin game, and a good amount of the Kansas game. Quite simply, the kid has game. When Lebron “the King” James mouths “WOW” and “OHHH SHIT!” to stuff you do on the court, that completely in and of itself validates you. Curry was lighting it up from three, driving past people for easy layups, and just making some ridiculously tough shots. Even more credit deserved for his decision to stay in college for his junior year. He certainly could have declared for the draft and based on his performance been a late first round draft pick. It will be a joy tracking him next season.
MLB Preview
The Yankees are 1-0! Chien-Ming Wang pitched a great, solid game against the Blue Jays last night (starting Roy Halladay), and I am absolutely in love with the Joba Chamberlain-Mariano Rivera combination to end games. With this set up, we can hopefully go back to the late 90′s teams in which if you weren’t leading after 6 innings, it was over. That being said, the AL is fucking stacked. You have the Detroit Tigers – whose line up looks even better than the Yankees or the Red Sox. You have the Cleveland Indians who are just itching to have their young talent explode. And of course, you have the Red Sox (boo! hiss!) who return most of their core from last year’s championship team and are ultimately going to be tabbed the early front runner to repeat. Here are some predictions for both the AL and NL:
AL East: Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Rays, Orioles
AL Central: Tigers, Indians, Twins, White Sox, Royals
AL West: Angels, Mariners, Athletics, Rangers
AL Wild Card: Red Sox
ALDS: Yankees d. Angels, Red Sox d. Tigers
ALCS: Yankees d. Red Sox
AL Cy Young: Erik Bedard
AL MVP: Alex Rodriguez
NL East: Mets, Braves, Phillies, Nationals, Marlins
NL Central: Cubs, Cardinals, Brewers, Reds, Astros, Pirates
NL West: Padres, Dodgers, Rockies, Diamondbacks, Giants
NL Wild Card: Dodgers
NLDS: Dodgers d. Mets, Cubs d. Padres
NLCS: Dodgers d. Cubs
NL Cy Young: Johan Santana
NL MVP: Albert Pujols
WORLD SERIES: Yankees d. Dodgers
-K
Posted by kevinhuang 
