Fuck Christmas, March is the best time of the year. Spring training, the conference tourneys, Selection Sunday, and finally, the best thing on earth, the NCAA Tournament.
Spring training is a magical thing. No matter how awful your team was the previous year (and being a Reds fan, I've seen some pretty awful teams), not even the most die hard cynic (i.e., me) can avoid being filled with hope. You have young guys trying to make the team, you get your first look at new signees, and it's always fun to see old favorites. I can watch Griffey and Dunn bat and Brandon Phillips play second all day, even if the games are meaningless. This year's especially nice for Reds fans because, for the first time in a while, we have a ton of young talent that will be contributing to the Major League team at some point this season. Jay Bruce is the top prospect in the minors (and will make losing Griffey much easier to take. Well, not for me, but I have a borderline unhealthy love of him), Homer Bailey is still exciting even if he does have control issues, and Johnny Cueto.... Well he very well might end up being the best out of all three. One scout said after watching him this spring that he's our ace. Considering that Aaron Harang is currently our very, very good number one right now and one of the best starters in the NL, that's very high praise. He's being compared to Pedro Martinez. I'm beyond pumped to see him this year. Even if the Reds end up disappointing me yet again this year, they're still always fun to watch. The team is filled with good guys who are fun to root for, even if we do always miss the playoffs. The Pacers could learn a thing or two from that.
On to hoops... I love the conference tournaments. I don't think winning them means anything, unless you're fighting for a bid to the NCAA's, but that's what makes it great. If a team gets hot, they can play their way in, and once you're in anything can happen. It's not without negatives though: Part of me wants the best 65 teams in the tournament, regardless of conference. The automatic bids prevent this happening. No disrespect to the smaller conferences, but with a lot of them, the league champion is nowhere near one of the best 65. Meanwhile bubble teams from bigger conferences who are good enough to possibly make some noise head on to the NIT. There are enough computer polls out now (Sagarin, Pomeroy, RPI) that one can fairly easily identify the best 65 teams without bias. But, it's always fun when one of the smaller teams does pull off an upset or two, so I really can't complain.
All the drama surrounding the IU program has put a damper on things for me. I'm fairly accustomed to this after the Mike Davis era. Once I turned on the tv today, however, and saw Texas Tech and Oklahoma State in a barn burner, none of the shit with Sampson mattered. This is the best few weeks of the year, and I'm still optimistic (foolishly) that IU can possibly win the Big Ten tournament and make some noise in the NCAA's. Anytime you have the two best players in the conference, you have to think there's still a chance to do something special. Hopefully IU and Purdue will get another match up, since the Big Ten (Jim Delaney sucks) decided we didn't need to play each other twice this season. How IU/PU isn't a protected rivalry is beyond me. Historically, no other school has dominated the conference like IU and PU, and with the recent resurgence of PU, it's a disgrace that we didn't play twice in the regular season.
Which brings me to another point, one that I hate to say: Matt Painter deserves a ton of credit and in my not so humble opinion should be national coach of the year. I had no doubt that the recruiting class he brought in was good, but I still assumed (like a lot of people) that anytime you rely on that many freshman, you're going to struggle. I was dead wrong. The way Painter has managed the young guys is amazing. A lot of credit goes to the players too, of course. Robbie Hummel is going to be a star in the Big Ten, and all four of them play like upperclassmen most of the time. And, perhaps most tellingly of the type of players they are, they love to play defense. Purdue fans have good reason to be excited for the next several years. Matt Painter is still a whiny little bitch, just like his buddy Bruce Weber, but unlike Weber, he's actually a helluva coach. Man, that hurts to say... (Bet you never thought you'd hear me say anything that nice about the Boilers, eh Miss Nikki?)
Oh, and congrats to Eric Gordon, DJ White, and Armon Bassett. Eric was Big Ten Freshman of the Year and first team all-conference, DJ was Player of the Year and first team all conference, and my man Armon was named third team all conference (mark my words, assuming he doesn't transfer, he's second team or better next year.) This has been a rough season, but it's nice to see the guys get some well deserved accolades.
One more note, my buddy Dev has joined the blogging community. Give him a look.
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