I’m interviewing CBS’s Seth Davis later today, so I thought I’d go over to SI.com and bone up on his bracket picks. It turns out he has the same Final Four picks as mine: Kansas, Syracuse, West Virginia and Duke.
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In a statement posted on his official website, Tiger Woods announced that he will return to the PGA Tour at this year’s Masters tournament, which takes place April 8-11.
“The Masters is where I won my first major, and I view this tournament with great respect. After a long and necessary time away from the game, I feel like I’m ready to start my season at Augusta.
“I have undergone almost two months of inpatient therapy, and I am continuing my treatment. Although I’m returning to competition, I still have a lot of work to do in my personal life.
“When I finally got into a position to think about competitive golf again, it became apparent to me that the Masters would be the earliest I could play. I called both Joe Lewis and Arnold Palmer and expressed my regrets for not attending the Tavistock Cup and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. I again want to thank them both for their support and their understanding. Those are fantastic tournaments, and I look forward to competing in them again.
I know I risk hurting my arm while trying to pat my own back, but this is what I wrote on March 2 when it was reported that Tiger was out of therapy and getting back into shape:
Does anyone else smell an April 8th return for Tiger? That’s the first day of the Masters and while I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of him playing in a smaller tournament or two before then, I’m willing to bet that Tiger would want to create some good publicity for himself on a big stage.
This one was rather easy to forecast. Woods (and his people) knows that the media coverage is going to be insane no matter where he goes, so he might as well play in a major, where access to him will be limited and there will be more storylines going on then just his return. He will still be the main focus obviously, but the Masters is already a big deal so why not return then?
Personally, I like the decision. It might have been wiser for him to return to a smaller event in order to get the first appearance out of the way, but why not tackle a major right away? His return is going to be a big story no matter what, so why not have it be on a huge national stage?
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It was inevitable that former Bulls head coach Jim Leavitt would sue South Florida in an effort to recover the money he lost when he was fired on January 8. After all, he wasn’t going to leave millions of dollars on the table and just walk away into the dark of the night to never return.
But even if the situation was inevitable, this isn’t a situation that USF desired to be in. The program knows it had recourse to fire Leavitt and avoid paying him for the final five years left on his contract after allegations emerged that he slapped walk-on player Joel Miller. But the school would prefer to move on and start new head coach Skip Holtz’s career without this dark cloud hanging over its head.
Still, it’s a situation USF has to deal with and it’ll be interesting to see what kind of effect it’ll have on the program this year. Miller is still on the team, as are several of the witnesses that attest to Miller’s side of the story. Can the Bulls still be a power in the Big East if Leavitt’s lawsuit makes it to court? What will the media coverage of the story be?
With exciting quarterback B.J. Daniels set to enter his second season, South Florida has plenty to look forward to in 2010. But as his lawsuit can attest to, Leavitt isn’t going away quite yet.
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Cardinals’ slugger Albert Pujols was a little miffed when he discussed the recent trade rumors involving him and Phillies’ star Ryan Howard.
From FOXSports.com:
“There’s people, stupid, that like to write something when it’s not the truth, and that’s all I have to say about that,” he said as the Cardinals visited the New York Mets for an exhibition game.
“If I’m getting traded, they need to come to me. That’s not my job to go to them,” Pujols said. “I’ve been saying all along I want to be here, but whatever, it’s not up to me. I just think somebody tried to be funny, but it’s so stupid when somebody takes something like that serious.”
Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. denied his team had discussed a trade and used “lies” and “ridiculous” and “irresponsible” to describe the report, which ESPN based on unidentified sources.
“I really don’t have anything to say about it,” Howard said at the Phillies’ camp in Clearwater.
“Truthfully, I can go back to all the stuff that happened when I was in Double-A — all the talk about trade rumors. I don’t know anything about anything. I’m not really focused on it. If that were the case — I don’t know if it is or not — it is what it is. You just keep going out there and doing your thing. If you get a call saying you’re traded, then you’re traded. Until that happens, I’m still a Phillie. I’m still here. Let’s ride it out.”
Per the ESPN report, the Cardinals and Phillies would swap the two stars before each of their contracts are up. But it sounds like an absolutely ridiculous notion and I don’t think fans should get too riled up over the possibilities here.
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Here’s Part 1, in case you missed it.
Now that we’ve narrowed the field from 65 to 32, it’s time to tackle the second round and beyond. When filling out your bracket, it’s not a bad idea to start with your Final Four picks and work backwards. I looked at the last six Final Fours to get an idea of the profile of a FF team and discovered the following:
22 of 24 FF teams (92%) finished the tournament with adjusted offensive and defensive efficiencies (i.e. points per possession adjusted for strength of schedule) in the top 30 (LSU ’06, George Mason ’06).
Here’s the list of teams that qualify heading into 2010: Duke, Kansas, Ohio St., Syracuse, West Virginia, BYU, Wisconsin, K-State, Kentucky and Texas. I’ll include Georgetown as well since their ranked #33 in defensive efficiency and could climb into the top 30 by tourney’s end.
22 of 24 FF teams (92%) finished the tournament with a Pythagorean win ranking in the top 10 (#23 George Mason ’06, #14 Villanova ’09).
Win percent can rise about a hundredth of a point over the course of the tournament. (Last year, Michigan State started at .943 and finished at .954 and Villanova went from .929 to .938.) So looking at the Pomeroy numbers, we should be looking at the top 12 teams — Duke, Kansas, Wisconsin, Ohio St, Syracuse, Kentucky, BYU, WVU, K-State, Maryland, Georgetown and Baylor — as potential FF teams.
21 of 24 FF teams were in top 7 in either offensive or defensive efficiency (George Mason ’06, Michigan State ’09, Villanova ’09).
Here are the teams that are in the top 10 in either efficiency: Duke (both), Kansas (both), California (off), Notre Dame (off), Baylor (off), Maryland (off), Ohio St. (off), Villanova (off), Syracuse (off), Georgetown (off), Florida State (def), Temple (def), Purdue (def), Wisconsin (def), Tennessee (def), Clemson (def) and Kentucky (def). I’d include WVU (11th – off) and BYU (12th – off) as well because they would likely finish in the top 7 with a FF run.
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