Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Wednesday: Top 5 things I'm looking forward to in March

It’s Hump Day! That means it’s time for this week’s edition of Top 5.
Being a college basketball junkie, I’m counting down the days until March. There’s two days left in February in case anyone was wondering.
Which brings me to today’s topic: Top 5 things I’m looking forward too in March.

1.     Madness: The upsets, the streaking teams, the drama…Gus Johnson. Everything about March is epic when it comes to basketball. And I just want to see madness. I want to see Oklahoma State finish the year on a huge run, led by Marcus Smart. I want LSU to knock off Florida this weekend. I want Wichita State to go undefeated in the regular season then get beat in the opening round of the Missouri Valley Conference. This is the best time of the year for someone who loves college basketball the way I do, and adding a little madness only makes it better.
2.     Cinderella: Is there anything better than a Cinderella story? Last year, Florida Gulf Coast won the country over with its dunks and flashy passing. Steph Curry waltzed his way to the Elite Eight in 2008, capturing the heart of the nation doing so. Who is it going to be this year? I have no idea, but that’s the exciting part of it. No one thought George Mason would make it to the Final Four, or Butler would go to the national title game back-to-back years. I’m not even going to take a guess at who it might be. I’m just going to enjoy the surprise.
3.     Basketball in Nebraska: Wow, who would have thought I’d be talking about this at this time? But basketball is back at Nebraska, and the Huskers have a legitimate shot at am at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament. It’s going to be interesting to see how they handle these last four games, which will decide whether they will be dancing. Just about 60 miles up the road on I-80 East, Creighton finds itself in conversation for a No. 2 seed in the Tournament. Doug McDermott has been magnificent this year and is a sure thing for All-American and Player of the Year honors. Can he lead the Jays to a Final Four? I think so. But more importantly, who isn’t excited to see what plays out in Nebraska?
4.     Conference Tournaments: Nothing gets me more excited for the NCAA Tournament than the weekend leading up to Selection Sunday. That’s when desperation sets in for teams. And with desperation comes fantastic basketball. Remember when Georgia made its run in the SEC tournament a few years ago during a hurricane? Or how about Kemba Walker and UConn winning five games in five days en route to the Big East title? Conference tournaments are great basketball and a great appetizer to the main entrée that is the Big Dance.
5.     Spring Training: I’m not a huge baseball guy, but there’s something about watching young players compete for positions on MLB rosters. It seems that players play with a lot more fire during spring training because they know jobs are at stake. Of course, it will also be interesting to see how the new faces on rosters gel. Big time players like Robinson Cano, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brian McCann all have different teams this year. Lets see if those deals work out for them and their respective clubs.

Top Videos:
-Heart-wrenching story about a NASCAR fan’s struggle.
-Wichita State won its 30th game of the season last night. Here are the highlights.
-Quarterbacks don't impress at this week's NFL Combine.
-These last two aren’t videos, but I wrote about Benny Parker’s rise on the Nebraska men’s basketball team.
-Finally, this is a neat story on how students at the Nebraska school of journalism are trying to get their favorite teacher tenure.

Thanks for reading and have a great rest of your day!

Reach me at: award6344@gmail.com

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram: @_andrewward

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