Quick Hits #2

The first version of Quick Hits may have been too "basketball-heavy", but so is my life during the month of March so here are only a couple more March Madness-related items followed by some other noteworthy sports headlines:


Big L-"East":  The Big East Conference set a record this year with 11 teams in its 16-team conference getting invited to the 68-team tournament.  The Big East snatched up 10 of the 37 "at-large" bids (27%), yet only 2 of the 11 teams remain in the tournament after 2 rounds of play - as many teams as the Big Ten, the Mountain West, and the City of Richmond, Virginia!

VCU is one of the two teams from
Richmond Virginia enjoying the "sweetness"
of the NCAA Tournament

How 'bout the City of Richmond?!:  2 of the 16 teams left in the NCAA tournament (VCU and Richmond) are from Richmond, Virginia.  The 11-seeded VCU Rams and the 12-seeded Richmond Spiders pulled off two consecutive upsets each this week.  Best known as the capital of the Confederacy during the Civil War, it is now know as the capital of the Cinderella team.

The NB-Who?:  By the way, has there even been a single NBA highlight on SportsCenter during the past week? Apparently during March Madness people pay attention to the NBA just about as much as the NBA players pay attention to playing defense before the playoffs.

Mario Lemieux may now be regretting his
demands for higher punishment for physical
play after Cook's suspension.

Irony on Ice:  Last month, the owner of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins, Mario Lemieux, lashed out at the NHL for what he perceived to be an insufficient amount of discipline and punishment following a brawl-filled game between his Penguins and the NY Islanders.  Last week, Lemieux proposed tougher suspensions for players that cross the line and inflict unnecessary roughness on other players during games - even suggesting that the teams be fined for the player's conduct.  This week, after elbowing an opponent in the head, one of Mario Lemieux's key players (Matt Cooke) was suspended for the remainder of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs.  Mario?  Any comment now?

Bonds on Trial:  The Barry Bonds perjury trial began on Monday in San Francisco.  You can read the riveting recap of Tuesday's proceedings of this century's "trial of the century" in California here.  Barry Bonds is on trial for perjury and obstruction of justice, charged with lying when he told a federal grand jury that he did not knowingly use performance-enhancing drugs...or eat his teammates' garlic fries.  It's also interesting to note the list of Bonds' perjury trial jurors in the ESPN link above, which has led to the key question that everyone in this perjury trial wants to have answered:  "Juror 21, how exactly did you manage to become a retired cashier without committing perjury yourself or slipping at least a $100 bill in your pocket at the end of every shift?!"