Quick Hits #1

Madness, Madness, and More Madness!:  The tournament started with a tremendous bang! on Thursday when three of the first four games on Thursday afternoon were decided on the game's final possession - Butler, Morehead St., and Temple all won on buzzer-beaters.  The Madness was off to a pretty good start.

Matt Howard (54) got the tournament started in style
with a game-winning shot against ODU.

Don't Miss It!: In February, I wrote about the fact that you could watch every game in its entirety due to the NCAA's new TV deal with CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV, but the real thing was even better than I could have imagined.  Although I admittedly did catch the buzzer-beaters mentioned above on my phone while I was at work, you could find which channel had which game on as well as the scores and time remaining so you could jump over and catch a key moment of any other game.  I'm not the only one who agreed:  TV ratings were up 16% when compared to last year.  On a related note, the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament is also going on right now and can be found on ESPN3.com and ESPNTitleIX.com.

Sorry Mr. President, the Game is on:  While Pres. Obama addressed the nation on Thursday assuring the country that harmful levels of radiation were not expected to reach the United States, CBS did not cut away to hear him live as the other major networks did.  Instead, CBS summarized his report in a 60-second clip during a game's commercial break.  On Friday, when Obama addressed the country regarding potential military action against Libya, CBS  ran a split screen, with audio of Obama and his picture on top, with a silent game on the bottom.  The White House has denied that Obama's reference to wanting to "Jimmer" Libya is not in any way meant to be a threat of a potential war.

No disrespect, Mr. Gadhafi, but if you mess with
us, you're going to get Jimmered.

BYU Runs to "Sweetness":  For the first time in 30 years, Jimmer Fredette, Jackson Emery, and the Cougars have moved onto the Sweet 16 where they will face Florida in New Orleans on Thursday.  The Jimmer has averaged only 33 points in wins over Wofford and Gonzaga leading many experts to wonder if he will ever regain his ability to score.

How Do You Handle The Jimmer?:  Florida's best-defender, Kenny Boynton, missed practice on Monday after spraining his ankle in Florida's win over UCLA on Saturday.  Florida Gator Coach Billy Donovan expects him to play against BYU on Thursday, but that Boynton's history of ankle injuries does not give him confidence that Boynton will be ready to go mentally. "I think there's a mental hurdle for him that he's going to have to get over, that he does feel good and he's not playing in pain."  Ankle injury or not, the same could be said to the mental anguish Jimmer has caused to anyone who has tried to defend him this year.

Florida fans are hopeful that Kenny
Boynton's ankle will enable him to try
and stop The Jimmer.