NCAA Lacrosse Final Four

The Second Round is done and the Final Four in Foxborough is set, first off here are the second Round Results:

# 1 Virginia 19, # 8 Johns Hopkins 8
# 5 Cornell 6, # 4 Princeton 4
# 3 Duke 12, # 6 North Carolina 11
# 2 Syracuse 11, Maryland 6

So i went 3-1 in this Round which leaves me a combined 10-2 for the Tournament which is pretty good. So on to the Final 4 Predictions.

FINAL FOUR
# 1 Virginia vs. # 5 Cornell
Virginia is the # 1 Seed and the have shown why scoring 37 goals which is by far the most in the Tournament, Cornell has played well but have had two close games, Virginia is the class of the Tournament and they should go into the Championship Game with ease and win it all.
PICK: Virginia

# 2 Syracuse vs. # 3 Duke
Syracuse is on the other side of Virginia giving up the least amount of goals in the Tournament at 10. Duke has had two different wins a blowout and a close one and though Syracuse's defense has been great there is something i like about this Duke team, so it should be an all ACC Final.
PICK: Duke

The ACC is the best conference in college lacrosse all four teams qualified for the tournament and if all goes the way i predicted it should be an all ACC Final.

Ripken Wants Answers

In a recent article on ESPN.com the Iron Man Cal Ripken said he wants an answer from Alex Rodriguez on why he used steroids. In the article Ripken states that he is going to make his business to find out why. Now like Ripken i wonder why someone who didn't need steroids would bother taking them. But with all due respect to Cal Ripken its really none of your business why A-Rod decided to take steroids. I'm sure Ripken feels like many of A-Rod's fans feel, angry maybe even a little betrayed, and the relationship Ripken has with Rodriguez I'm sure doesn't make it any easier. But my take on this is if A-Rod wants to talk to Ripken or for that matter anyone he shouldn't be pressured into doing so. A-Rod has to live with the decision he has made in his life and i have no problem with him no longer wanting to talk about it anymore. Also i think we can all agree that Rodriguez has talked more about his steroid use than any other player who has tested positive. So though Ripken says he wants answers doesn't mean A-Rod will open up to the Hall of Famer and as far as i am concerned that's ok. Rodriguez will talk to whoever he wants whenever he wants.

Roger Clemens continues to Deny Steroid Use

Today a book on Roger Clemens alleged steroid use was released to the public. In response Clemens was on Mike and Mike in the Morning to continue denying his use of steroids. Its gotten to the point does anyone care about this anymore. Another point does anybody believe what Clemens has to say, or to be honest what McNamee says, both seem to be liars. Roger Clemens is by far one of the best pitchers in baseball history and maybe the best of his era. For those who doubt his greatness just look at the numbers, 354 Wins, 3.12 ERA and 4672 Strikeouts. Now most baseball writers have gone on the record of saying that any player linked to steroids they will never vote into the baseball hall of fame. In theory i cant argue that but logically just because a player is linked doesn't mean he actually took anything. No matter how much evidence you have against Clemens, Bonds, McGwire and Sosa none of those guys ever tested positive. I still believe they all did but can you condemn them without having concrete evidence that all of them cheated. Maybe, maybe not all i know is that its sad for the game of Baseball that some of there biggest stars will be shunned from the Hall of Fame because they wanted to take the easy way out instead of working hard to become great.

NCAA Lacrosse Second Round

So the first Round of the NCAA Lacrosse Tourney is done and he were the Results:

# 1 Virgina 18, Villanova 6
# 8 Johns Hopkins 12, Brown 11
# 5 Cornell 11, Hofstra 8
# 4 Princeton 10, UMass 7
# 3 Duke 14, Navy 5
# 6 North Carolina 15, UMBC 13
Maryland 7, # 7 Notre Dame 3
# 2 Syracuse 11, Siena 4

If you Look at my blog about a week ago my First Round Picks were a pretty good 7-1, the only loss was UMBC losing to North Carolina. So Now its time for the Second Round Picks.

SECOND ROUND NCAA PICKS
# 1 Virginia vs. # 8 Johns Hopkins
Its hard to push aside a team the quality of a team like Johns Hopkins, but the Blue Jays are coming off a lackluster performance against Brown while Virginia destroyed Villanova it was 18-0 to start the Fourth Quarter. Virginia is just to good of a team.
PICK: Virginia

# 4 Princeton vs. # 5 Cornell
Neither team was overly impressive in their first round games but they both got the job done which is the most important thing. This to me will be a very tightly contested game.
PICK: Princeton

# 3 Duke vs. # 6 North Carolina
Duke handled Navy easily and Carolina squeaked by UMBC. This is the third meeting between the two. Duke has won both and though this goes against the old saying its hard to beat a team 3 times in a season, however if you are better its not.
PICK: Duke

# 2 Syracuse vs. Maryland
Part of me would love to pick Maryland in this especially after handing Notre Dame its first loss. But there is a reason Notre Dame was a seven seed and undefeated, Syracuse looked good but they should have. Syracuse wins but it wont be easy.
PICK: Syracuse

So My final Four is as chalk as chalk can get # 1 Virginia, # 2 Syracuse, # 3 Duke and # 4 Princeton, It should be a good one.

NO MORE FAVRE

I am only posting this because it seems like that's all they want to talk about is the possibility of Favre returning yet again. They even have Rachel Nichols outside Favre's house giving updates. The latest on Favre is that he sent X-Rays of his arm to the Vikings and depending on the severity will depend on his decision. First of all i don't want to see Favre play anymore and i think he is being extremely selfish. The only reason Favre is coming back is to stick it to the Green Bay Packers. Yea the Vikings are a pretty good team but there are other teams that need a quarterback so why the Vikings. It also cant be because he loves playing at the Metrodome, his stats are horrible in that building and hes only won 5 times there. Bret Favre was one of my favorite players but this constant retire, un-retire is getting very old. Actually i don't know what i dislike more Bret Favre or the coverage ESPN is giving him. They even reported on a text message he sent to Trent Dilfer regarding his retirement. Soon they will report on what he has for lunch. Personally if Favre does make another return i hope in his two games against Green Bay the Packers destroy the Vikings and Aaron Rodgers has career days. The only interesting part in this whole saga is the response the Green Bay fans give Favre if runs on the field with a Vikings jersey on. No matter what happens this is the last i will write or say anything about Bret Favre, i am officially boycotting Favre this is one of the stories that i don't care about at all.

Add Manny to the List

As many of you already know Manny Ramirez has been suspended for 50 games for Testing positive for a performance enhancer. Once again a power hitter that at least i was hoping was clean is not. According to Manny he got the prescribition from a doctor which had something in it that triggered a positive test. As much as you want to believe him can you? We believed Rafael Palmeiro when he shook his finger at congress, we believed A-Rod when he said he never used and we all know how those two scernios played out. Unfortunatley i dont think we will ever get past the steroid era. And everytime someone does test positive a dad has to explain to his son why his hero takes drugs. The saddest thing of all is that any player who puts up good number will be under a cloud of suspicion. Manny cheated plain and simple but do we blame him or blame the culture. True nobody forced Manny to take these drugs but due to the abundance of steroid use he might have felt he had no other choice. Maybe he felt he had to keep up with everybody else. No matter how you look at it, its another black eye for baseball seeing one of its best players test positive. Hopefully, its over but honestly would it surprise anyone if Albert Pujols, Ryan Howard or Prince Fielder tested Positive. The answer is no.

NCAA Lacrosse Tournament

This Saturday the 2009 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament Gets underway and though its not a mainstream sport I'm still going to make my predictions Round by Round.

NCAA FIRST ROUND
# 1 Virginia (11-5) vs. Villanova (13-2)
Villanova is coming off a CAA Conference Championship victory over Towson, Nova also only has 1 Victory against the RPI Top 20 which is Hofstra, Virginia is coming off a loss in the ACC Tournament but are the # 1 Seed for a Reason
PICK: Virginia

# 8 Johns Hopkins (9-4) vs. Brown (12-3)
The National Runners up of a Year ago did not have the best of seasons with no wins against any RPI Top 5 teams, Brown has an impressive record but only 3 of its 12 wins are against RPI Top 20, the Blue Jays should win this one.
PICK: Johns Hopkins

# 5 Cornell (10-3) vs. Hofstra (11-3)
Neither team has strong resumes but Cornell has two strong wins over Duke and Princeton, Hofstra lost in the CAA Tournament and that doesn't look good for them.
PICK: Cornell

# 4 Princeton (12-2) vs. UMass (9-5)
Princeton has 5 RPI Top 20 wins including 2 in the Top 5, Princeton is definitely one of the favorites, UMass had a magical run to the finals a couple years back but that wont happen this year.
PICK: Princeton

# 3 Duke (13-3) vs. Navy (11-4)
In this battle of the ACC and Patriot League Champions, I see Duke as way to powerful for Navy, though i would like to see the upset don't think it will happen here.
PICK: Duke

# 6 North Carolina (11-5) vs. UMBC (12-3)
UNC has impressive wins over Hopkins and Maryland in the ACC Tournament, UMBC won the America East Title i like this match up for UMBC this will be my first upset.
PICK: UMBC

# 7 Notre Dame (15-0) vs. Maryland (9-6)
Notre Dame's High seed for an undefeated is attributed to its weak schedule, Maryland snuck in despite losing its first game in the ACC Tournament I think Maryland give Notre Dame its first loss.
PICK: Maryland

# 2 Syracuse (12-2) vs. Siena (12-5)
6 RPI Top 20 Wins and a solid schedule give the Orange a 2 seed, while Siena has no wins in the Top 20 this would shouldn't be close.
PICK: Syracuse

So those are my first round picks make sure to check it out next week when i make the next rounds picks.