Madness

Today is March 7th. The sun is shining (even though it's still only 36 degrees outside), the snow has melted (except for what were formerly huge piles), things are starting to look more green and lively (but maybe that's just me). Oh yeah, one more thing - Selection Sunday is 7 days away!

Whether you like basketball or you don't, you probably agree with me when I say that the NCAA Basketball Tournament is the best post-season in all of sports. Especially in a season like the 2010/2011 NCAA season, where no one team has proven itself to be the best, I believe this tournament will show a level of parity only seen once every few seasons. I could very well see a 4, 5, or 6 seed not only making the final four, but winning the championship. The reason for this is that parity. In some ways, this can be seen just by taking a closer look into the Big East and the teams they will be sending to the dance.

An important thing to remember about March Madness that it's kind of like the NFL playoffs - how you did at the beginning of the season means very little compared to how hot you are entering the tourney. If we take a look into the Big East, we find teams like Pitt and Notre Dame - both likely destined for 1 or 2 seeds, and both with the ability to get hot for two weeks and win 6 games in a row. Looking to the 2nd tier of Big East teams, we find Syracuse, St. John's and Georgetown. Probably 4 or 5 seeds in the tourney, but the same applies for them. Especially looking at St. John's, they seem like a team which is peaking at the precise time needed to make a run. If we look even further down then we get to UConn and Villanova. Depending on what happens in the Big East Tournament, these two teams could see 6 or 7 seeds in the tournament. Both teams have had marquee wins this season, though, and both have the ability to get hot and make a run, as was seen in their pre-season tournaments. Didn't even mention WV or Louisville here, both also clearly with the ability to make some noise. Either way, it will definitely be exciting. Need to get through the gauntlet that is the Big East Tournament first, though.

Want to take a minute to give some press to the Lafayette Leopards men's basketball team for beating American last night (in double overtime!) in the semis of the Patriot League tournament. They'll be playing Bucknell on Friday for a spot in the NCAA tournament. As the 6 seed in the Patriot League tournament nobody even imagined Lafayette would make it this far. Sure would be cool, though, for them to get one more win and make the dance for the first time since 2000.

While we're on the topic of Madness, I watched Black Swan the other night. After hearing all the buzz surrounding this movie and seeing Natalie Portman win the Oscar for Best Actress, I knew it was a must see. Before getting into the content of the movie itself, I think a big thumbs up first needs to go to Mila Kunis for her performance. She portrayed what I saw as the perfect dark counterpart to Portman's character. Definitely a huge career move for her as she goes from the chick on That 70's Show and Meg Griffin to a role like this. This role will show producers her ability to play a serious character and will move her into an entirely new tier of potential roles.

As for the movie itself, I thought it was great. Very interesting story, but I feel like the best part of this film was the directing. You can really see the energy which went into every camera angle, every movement on screen, every line delivered. Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler) will no doubt be winning an Oscar for Best Director in some point during his career which seems to just be getting underway. Also, it get's me even more excited for The Wolverine, which Aronofsky is directing. Overall, Black Swan gets 4.5 stars out of 5.

Photo: Black Swan Movie Poster, Credit: Fox Searchlight Pictures