Best of Sev.... zZz zZz zZz

March Madness is upon us, with the NBA finals soon to follow. It's a good time to be a hoops fan, that's for sure. March Madness is full of interesting matchups, with big upsets sure to come. That is, unless the calender reads 2008. The NBA finals are shaping up to be equally exciting also, with the top heavy east possibly bringing back some memories of '90's basketball.

One problem with that: All four rounds are best-of-seven series. Come again? If every series in every round went to 7 games, there would be 105 games played total. That's more than the entire NCAA tournament which lets in 68 teams, compared to the 16 that make the NBA playoffs. Baseball, which plays something like a gazillion regular season games, doesn't put it's fan through four rounds of 7 game series'. Not sure why the NBA feels the need to drag the playoffs on so long that the excitement has all but fizzled away like a Miami Heat 4th quarter lead by the time the Finals roll around. I know the first round used to be best-of-five, but how about making all rounds up to the finals best-of-five? NFL; you get one shot against a team, the NCAA tourney gives you only one chance to prove yourself against a team, and the entire NCAA football season is a big playoff, really. Yet the dudes playing in the big leagues have to play up to seven games per round? I guess it makes it more of a test in a sense, but it would be a helluva test playing four best-of-five series too.

As a fan of the hardwood thru and thru, I will always get jacked for the playoffs, but I'll have to fight my ADD to not get a little tired out after 2 weeks of the same matchup.

"Playoffs? You wanna talk about the Playoffs? PLAYOFFS?!"

Ducks in the doghouse

The NCAA is going all FBI on the Duck football squad, for allegedly shelling out cash to a guy in the Lone Star state to send some of their stars to Eugreen. (Whether it's true or not, thank gawd they ended up here) The amount is rumored to be $25,000, which is a helluva lot less than the contract sCam Newton signed with the Tigres, but it's still against the rules. Kind of ironic that the two teams that met in the natty chip game had the highest payrolls! As a duck fan (obviously) this definitely puts me on edge a little considering the fate of the former, formerly known as pac-10, pac-12 powerhouse USC Trojan's, and their fall from the top. The Chip Kelly era is just beginning, so this would certainly put a damper on that train if the U of O got called to the principles office. There's no doubt in my mind that this kind of stuff goes on all the time in collegiant sports. There's way too much money involved for the influence of cold hard cash to not reach the players and their families.

On a side note, maybe the UO could slip a few 20's in that same guys pocket to send a few decent basketball players this way? I mean, a near .500 record in the "illustrious" Pac-10 basketball conference isn't the worst thing in the world, but there's no reason Duck basketball can't be on par with the football program, what with the new stadium and all.