Happy March Madness!

The 2007 NCAA Tournament has officially began and, not coincidentally, so has my love affair with my new TV.

There really is nothing quite like watching the beginning of March Madness (of course I'm not counting that foolish "opening round game") in glorious high definition, with the surround sound blaring the familiar CBS "Road to the Final Four" tune at neighbor-annoying decibels, my brackets in one hand, beverage of choice in the other. It nearly brought a tear of joy down my cheek.

(Quick note about the new set: now I hate to leave the HD channel range- the upper 600s-700s- and venture down into the nether lands of basic & digital cable. It's like owning a Ferrari and only driving it in first gear; sure it looks great and can still outperform nearly all of its competitors, but it's not until you air it out in the higher gears that the beautiful machine realises its full potential. I'll stop now.)

Anyway the thrill off the set didn't wear off although the early games left a lot to be desired as far as excitement goes. The Maryland/Davidson contest, which I received in my market, was actually a decent game until the last few minutes, but other than that the first round of games went pretty much according to form. Here's a quick recap:

- Maryland 82, Davidson 70
Don't be fooled by the score- Davidson was close, late (71-68 w/ 3:33 to go) and gave the Terps fits all day, mainly sharpshooter Stephen Son of Dell Curry; he finished with 30, including 16 in the first half, 10 straight to close the half. But he went ice cold in the second half and so did Davidson's chance at an upset.

BTW, Straw Jr. is a damn good ball player

-BC 84, Tex Tech 75
Bobby Knight's streak of futility in Lubbock continues as the Eagles dispatched the Red Raiders
behind the tri-namic trio of Sean Marshall (21 pts), Tyrese Rice (26 pts) and Jared Dudley (19 pts). Tech stayed close for most of the game, but with star guard and leading scorer Jarrius Jackson gagging (10 pts, 4-14 FGs), you knew it would be another disappointing end for a Knight-coached team.

On the other bright side I have BC advancing pretty far in my bracket, so this was a win-win for me.

-Louisville 78, Stanford 58
The Cardinal vs. Cardinals turned out to be as interesting as the reason why Stanford's nickname doesn't have an "s" at the end of it (the name is for the school color, not the bird)- in other words, not very. Louisville was one of the hottest teams in the land coming in to the tourney, and playing an overmatched 12-loss team did nothing to prevent that hot streak from continuing.

Pitino's return to Rupp Arena may have brought mixed feelings, but his team has won 12 of its last 15 and is poised for a potential long tourney run. Then again, I picked them to go to the Final 4, so maybe not.

Vandy is taking on GW right now and handling them pretty well.

I'm heading back into high def land; not sure when I'll be back.