Greetings cats and kittens. I can't start the Talking Trash blog without first mentioning how excited I am that the original "Trashman" himself, Mark Trombley will be coming to Milwaukee for the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tourney! I look forward to a huge Talking Trash reunion in the 414!
Also big-ups to Mitch Whitmore of the U.S. Long Track Speedskating team. Mitch quit his job some months ago so he could train harder and he eventually landed a spot on the Olympic team! Mitch's job that he left opened the spot at the Pettit for me, so it was clearly a win-win for the both of us. They even shot some footage that might air with him driving the Zamboni for old times sake! Best of luck to him and the other members of the team. It's been a pleasure making ice for them these past few months as they train for the Olympics which are coming very soon!
Now to the Super Bowl. If you don't read this before the game you can simply laugh at my surely off prediction. I say that in reference to my last post which was pre-NFL season in which I picked the Patriots and Giants to meet in the Super Bowl... way off!
First let me mention that unlike almost every Super Bowl there is no bad guy here. No team or player I really hate is in this year which is awesome. That said I'm joining the rest of America on the New Orleans bandwagon. I've had a Drew Brees jersey for about 3 or 4 years now and feel that I was on a little sooner than everyone else. I hope they win but I can't let that play into my prediction...
Let's face it, Peyton Manning is the best game manger in the game. He audibles like his life depends on it and from the sounds of the Saints' Defense's intentions his life might just depend on it. That said it's hard to bet against Peyton and his ability to change games. I don't think the Saints defense will be good enough to stop him regularly enough. Drew Brees will have a nice day too, but I think the Colts defense and the first few drives of "oh my God look at the stage we're on" moments for the Saints will factore in to the overall decision. I see a high scoring game where the Saints run out of time on the comeback trail. Colts win 45-38.
Now time for a topic close to my heart. March Madness. Lately there's been a lot of talk about expanding the tournament to either 68 teams or 90-something to give certain teams byes.
Look people we all know how great the NCAA Tournament is now right? Why mess with that? I've heard people say, "this gives more teams a chance to be the tourney." To which I say yes, but then it cheapens it. Also then you have more play-in style game with teams from smaller conference facing off against each other. That's not what we want to see. We want to see small "David" schools try to slay big time "Goliath" schools. We want a team to have a chance to make some noise by being Cinderella and crashing the ball known as the sweet-16 or even the Final Four. Every team has a chance to be one of the 65 (for the record the play-in game now is stupid). Almost every team is in a division. Win that conference tourney and your in... it's that simple.
If for some reason they do decide to expend at all I hope they take a page from the mind of Dan Young who basically would rather see "bubble" teams fight for the 7, 8, 9, & 10 seeds. This way the opening round would have some nice competitive game with teams who had something to prove getting a chance to prove it. Don't punish conference champs by making them face each other in a game they could schedule any season. Let them have their shot at the big boys.
Also expanding the tourney would almost kill the quality of other post-season tourneys such as the CBI and more notably the NIT. Good tournaments in their own right. They still give teams a shot at glory in a "losers bracket type format," which if they didn't qualify for the big tourney than they should be in anyway. These tourneys give those teams that are motivated by a snub or a bad game in their conference tourney a shot at redemption.
I hate it when people look at something not broken and try to figure out a way to fix it. If the NCAA needs something to do get busy on how you're going to fix the BCS issue in football because it's time is nearing and end.
Lastly for now I say best of luck to all the UVM teams this season. It's been hard to be so far away from them for the past two seasons. This year I'm excited to go to the America East basketball tourney in Hartford. I have been to all, or parts of the America East Tourney every year since 2002 except last year and I look forward to once again rooting on the Cats. My post-season streak did continue last year as the Cats made the CBI and played up in Green Bay and won with me in full regalia behind the bench. Time to do work again!
I hope to be in a little more often and if there's anything you'd like me to touch upon in my next blog email me at Jason@JasonPiche.com and I'll get right to it! Pich' Out!
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