March Madness!

Today begins the best even in sports, with the next four days being the best of it. I am planting my ass in my basement and not coming out until Sunday night.

My Final Four: Kansas (over Georgetown in the Midwest Regional), Kansas St. (over Syracuse in the West), West Virginia (over Kentucky in the East) and Duke (over Baylor in the South). Kansas will beat West Virginia in the Final.

There is no great team this year but only one of the teams mentioned above, and Ohio St., can win it this year. Kentucky is probably the most talented team but they are not that mature. I don't mean that they are too young, I mean that I don't think they will handle a great defense and close game that W. Virginia will throw at them. Kentucky hasn't played a team like the Mountaineers all year and it will show.

Now time to deal with the notion that Duke got a 1 seed to boost ratings and and Kansas got screwed by being put in the bracket off death.

First Duke. To suggest a conspiracy is completely absurd. There is not much difference anymore between being a 1 or 2 with regards to how easy it is to get to the Final Four. And of the 4 1 seeds Duke has the toughest potential 2nd round game against Louisville. Louisville is inconsistent but very talented and beat Syracuse twice. If they are at their best they will beat Duke by 10 and Duke won't even get out of the first weekend.

Now Kansas. Yes there are a lot of good teams in the Midwest but Tennessee (who is overrated despite beating Kansas and Kentucky and might not beat SD St.), Georgetown and Ohio St. are all in the bottom half of that bracket, which means they only have to play one of them (and West Virginia is the best 2 seed so Kentucky has the toughest potential Regional Final). And Michigan St./Maryland might be a second round matchup, which means the Jayhawks only have to play one of them.

If you have not filled out your brackets yet go with the chalk. I really don't see a lot of upsets this year. My only Sweet Sixteen sleeper is Siena and I had to convince myself of that.

Best of luck to everyone in their pool!

I Was Wrong.

Tiger will make his return at The Masters. He will not win that tournament. No way, no how.

Tiger's Return.

There has been a lot of speculation the past week about whether Tiger is going to tee it up for the first time at Bay Hill, The Masters, or sometime after The Masters.

I previously stated I thought he would be back at Bay Hill and I still do. Here is a list of reasons each makes sense, as well as why they don't.

Why He Will Play Bay Hill First

1. He has a great relationship with Arnie and Arnie showing him support at his tournament would be good step to helping repair Tiger's reputation (to the degree that it can be restored anyway).

2. He has won this tournament six times before and each of the past two with birdie puts on the last hole. Tiger has good karma here and God knows he needs that. I don't think he can win his first time out, but if he can, this is the only place other than Torrey Pines where he could.

3. This goes along with point 2. Winning is the only thing Tiger can do to get his life back to some degree of normalcy. Winning Majors even more so. If he doesn't win here he will at least have a tournament under his belt heading to Augusta.

4. He needs to get his first tournament over with. While the fogies who run Augusta can provide more protection for him it will still be a huge distraction. Playing Bay Hill gets a lot of questions out of the way so he can start to move on.

Why He Will Not Play Bay Hill First

1. What if Arnie isn't exactly glowing in his support of Tiger? That ain't good. I don't think he wants a father figure type talking about how great Tiger is but what he did was really stupid.

2. There is less certainty about how the gallery will react at this tournament than Augusta. My guess is the heckling here will be far worse than it ever could be at Augusta.

Why He Will Play The Masters First

1. It's his favorite tournament. It's the one he wants to win more than any other every year.

2. As mentioned above it will be the most controlled environment for him. He can get the fogies to shut out media that pisses him off and the gallery is ridiculously polite. It's worth mentioning that the gallery is usually full of high-powered executive types, 80% of whom screw their secretaries, so they will think what Tiger did was really no big deal and will leave him alone.

3. His ego is still huge and my guess is he will still have a flair for the dramatic and the ability rise to the occasion. And I think he has a stubborn "Fuck all of you" streak in him that will be even bigger now. What better way to stick it to everyone, other players included, than winning his first tournament back at The Masters?

Why He Will Not Play The Masters First

1. He is all about winning Majors and this year is his best ever chance at the Grand Slam. The US and British Opens are at Pebble beach and St. Andrew's, courses he owns. While only Tiger could win The Masters on his first tournament back, I doubt he will. Why take the risk of not winning when this is the best chance he will ever have at the Grand Slam? This is the biggest reason he chooses Bay Hill.

Why He Will Play After The Masters First

1. He is just not ready to go yet. If it is not the Masters all bets are off as to where he will tee it up. It's also a sign that he really is broken by this whole mess.

Why He Will Not Play After The Master First

1. As pointed out above, the only way to get back to any semblance of normalcy is to get back on the course.


To me it has to be Bay Hill. All Tiger has wanted to do, and been programmed to do, since he was three years old is to win golf tournaments and get to 19+ Major championships. His whole life has been built on success on the course (everything that has gone wrong is entirely off the course) and that is exactly where he belongs and it has to be the most comfortable place in his life. The sooner he is out and winning again, especially a year where the Grand Slam is its most likeliest, the sooner he will start getting media to focus on golf, start getting endorsements back, and stop having people laugh when they hear his name.

Oscar Night .

I have not seen every movie that was nominated this year but does that matter? Hardly. It's always about knowing what the Academy looks for rather than wat they saw.

Best Picture

Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

I like that they expanded this category to 10 because it gives a movie like Up a nomination it may not otherwise have received. Which is great because Up and An Education were the two best movies I saw this year.

Will Win: The Hurt Locker
Look Out For: Up in the Air

Best Director

Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds

Will Win: Kathryn Bigelow
Look Out For: James Cameron

Best Actor

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Will Win: Jeff Bridges
Look Out For: Colin Firth

Best Actress

Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Will Win: Sandra Bullock
Look Out For: Carey Mulligan. At least I hope. She was just incredible in this role.

Best Supporting Actress

Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrcik, Up in the Air
Mo'Nique, Precious

Will Win: Mo'Nique
Look Out For: Maggie Gyllenhaal

Best Supporting Actor

Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christopher Waltz, Inglorious Basterds

Will Win: Christopher Waltz
Look Out For: Woody Harrelson

Best Original Screenplay

Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds
Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman, The Messenger
Joel Cohen & Ethan Cohen, A Serious Man
Bob Peterson & Pete Docter & Thomas McCarthy, Up

Will Win: Mark Boal
Look Out For: Quentin Tarantino

Best Adapted Screenplay

Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell, District 9
Nick Hornby, An Education
Jesse Armstrong & Simon Blackwell & Armando Iannucci & Tony Roche, In the Loop
Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air

Will Win: Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner
Look Out For: Nick Hornby

Vancouver 2010. We Did It!

I have never been prouder to be Canadian.

It is not just about setting a record with 14 Gold Medals that allowed us to truly Own The Podium. Or the 7 Silver and 5 Bronze that gave us a third place total of 26 medals. It is also about how Canadians across the country embraced these games and the pride we showed in our country. We were not embarrassed to strive for Gold or to display the pride we feel for Canada. I truly feel like the country has changed and that we can not only feel proud, but also feel proud about feeling proud.

It was an incredible 17 days and I speak for most Canadians when I say that I hate like hell that it is over.