Headlines
Elite 8 Starts Today In the NCAA Tournament, the 65 teams has been whittled down to the eight, and the first two teams will punch their tickets to Detroit and the Final Four today. The matchups are as follows: #1 UConn vs. #3 Missouri and #1 Pittsburgh vs. #3 Villanova (Saturday), and #1 Louisville vs. #2 Michigan State and #1 North Carolina vs. #2 Oklahoma on Sunday. My bracket has Oklahoma winning the national title, defeating Louisville in the championship game, so I still have that going. The Big East has four of the eight teams, cementing themselves as the best conference in college basketball. "My Two Cents": I am calling for Louisville, Pitt, Oklahoma and UConn to advance to the Final Four. We'll see on Monday how those predictions turn out.Lakers Clinch Top Seed in West
Pau Gasol scored 36 points to offset a poor shooting night for Kobe Bryant, and the Los Angeles Lakers clinched home-court advantage throughout the Western Conference playoffs. Bryant had an off night, shooting an air ball on his first shot, spraining his right ankle and finishing only 5-of-19 from the field. The Lakers, unlike in recent years, are more than just Kobe, and Gasol helped show that on Friday.
"My Two Cents": The Lakers still need Kobe to be more effective getting his teammates involved in crucial situations. He will face constant double- and triple-teams in the postseason, and his boys must be ready to step up, which they weren't last year in the Finals against the Celtics.
Tiger 5 back at Bay Hill
After chipping in two more times for birdie on Friday, Tiger Woods closed with a 1-under 69, putting him in contention heading into the weekend at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando. Woods is five shots behind American Sean O'Hair, who shot a day-low 65. After his round, Tiger said he didn't hit the ball as well as on Thursday, but he was happy with the way he "managed a score".
"My Two Cents:" Jen and I will be at Bay Hill for the final round on Sunday, so let's hope Tiger goes low today and is in the final group tomorrow with a shot to win.
Quick Hit Thoughts of the Week
- Kentucky fired coach Billy Gillespie on Friday after only two years. That's not as surprising as the fact the Gators coach Billy Donovan has already come out and said he isn't interested. Sadly though, we've heard coaches say that they aren't interested only to turn around and become that team's new coach. We'll see!
- My favorite hockey team, the Rangers, is finishing their playoff push, and look to be firmly entrenched as one of the top-8 in the Eastern Conference. Finishing 6th or 7th would mean a matchup against either the rival New Jersey Devils and Martin Brodeur, or the Washington Capitals, led by my favorite NHLer Alexander Ovechkin. I'm hoping for a series against the Caps, which would probably have all games in HD on Versus.
- I joined a fantasy baseball league with Creney and his boys, and our draft was this past week. My team, Sizemore Matters, had the sixth pick, and in the first round we took, of course, Grady Sizemore. We also have Manny Ramirez, Roy Halladay and Fransisco Rodriguez as our big guns. It should be fun!
That's all for the first webisode of "Pafcenter" on the all-new JasonPafundiOnline.com. Tune in Monday afternoon for a recap of the Elite 8 and our day at the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
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