The Final Four is set, and in all likelihood, your bracket is totally screwed. A couple of pretty boring games on Sunday, but everyone enjoyed Saturday’s thriller between ‘Nova and Pitt-what a game.
There is no shortage of Final Four analysis floating about the interwebst, and it was an interesting sports weekend on many fronts, so on to the linkage:

The University of Kentucky foolishly fired Billy Gillespie only two years in; now they seem poised to land John Calipari. Look out, SEC.

Stephan Curry’s little brother Seth is going to transfer from Liberty to….Duke. Ugh. There goes any chance he had at being beloved like his big bro.

Great, great read about the voice of this year’s tournament (with apologies to Gus Johnson)-Bill “ONIONS!” Raftery. He’s the man.

James Posey went from being the glue of the Celtics’ championship run to this?

I hope you snuck away from the end of the UNC-OU game to watch Tiger pounce on the back 9 at Bay Hill. His tourney clinching birdie putt on 18 will be remembered as the spark that ignited his furious comeback from injury. The guess here is 2 major championships for Tiger this year.

In case you missed LeBron’s riveting segment on 60 Minutes last night, click here and enjoy. I knew LeBron was a savvy businessman, but his poise, maturity and desire to shape himself into a global icon are pretty damned impressive for a 24 year old kid who has been the focus of immense hype since he was about 14.

Classy move by Texans RB Ryan Moats to accept the apology of the Dallas cop who harassed him last week as he rushed to the bedside of his dying stepmother. Turns out this wasn’t the first NFL-related incident the officer has been involved in.

Sweet 16 time, everyone. Hopefully your brackets aren’t as jacked up as mine. A few links to get you through the final 3 hour lull before the Madness resumes.

Up and coming blog Sparty & Friends comes strong with a full tournament bracket to determine the ultimate sports movie.

I’ve got Purdue in the Elite 8, so I for one really hope that this proves to be a major distraction for UConn. Tsk, Tsk, Coach Calhoun.

It’ll be tricky to fully work out, especially with the impending labor war in the NFL, but expanding the regular season to 18 games is long overdue. Lose 2 stupid pre-season games, give fans more of America’s most popular obsession, increase revenues and everybody wins.

In case you hadn’t heard, LeBron James is ridiculous, and the Cavs are now poised to win the East crown again. I feel like James is on the verge of winning the MVP, and then holding on to it for about 4 seasons straight-who the hell is going to take it away as he only gets better?

Cool story from ESPN about Villanova guard Corey Fisher. I love how the NCAA tournament brings about several great personal stories every year.

An analysis of what sort of drunken bar hookups various sports franchises would look like? Sweet.

Congratulations to Japan, repeat winners of the World Baseball Classic.

NBA rookies should never, ever mess with Bobby Jackson’s ride. You’ve been warned, rooks.

DirecTV has re-upped its deal with the NFL to keep the awesome NFL Sunday Ticket package exclusively on DTV. If you like DirecTV, this is great, because they do an awesome job with it. It sucks for folks stuck with cable, however, and seems like a curious move by the NFL. They could get carriers to each pay them huge $$$ to carry this thing.

If Shaq and LeBron want to get into an escalating “intro” war, then bring on the entertainment. Shaq will win in the end. He always does.

The Big Lead takes exception to those attempting to compare Steph Curry with the reviled J.J. Redick. I agree with him, in that Curry’s game translates MUCH better to the NBA.

In case you missed it last week, Skins TE Chris Cooley made an offhanded comment about not wanting to get “shipped to Cleveland.” Naturally, the good people of Ohio took exception. Here is his classic response to a particularly douchey commenter.

Kayaker goes big with a 127 foot waterfall drop, and comes out unscathed. To quote my man Bill Raftery-”Onions! Double order!”

Well, perhaps the best sports weekend of the year has come and gone once again. I hope everyone enjoyed the first 4 days of the tournament, and managed to watch games while at work, either at the bar or via CBS Sportsline. Their March Madness On Demand was solid this year, with excellent video quality and little to no waiting times.

If you took the chalk in your bracket(s), things went well for you, as the top 3 seeds in each region advanced. People love to bitch about having no Cinderellas to root for, but we still got plenty of great games, especially on Friday and Sunday. It’s fun to root for an underdog, especially once your brackets are shot, but having the high seeds intact means we’ll get to settle some important debates in the Sweet 16. We’ll find out how good the Big East REALLY is, as they have 5 teams still alive in the tourney. We’ll get to see UNC really tested, and whether or not the Big Ten can somehow justify getting 7 teams in the dance.

Good breakdowns of the weekend’s action and previews of the Sweet 16 from four of the big boys:

CNNSI
ESPN
Sportsline
Yahoo

Lance Armstrong injured in a bike wreck in Spain. I’d have cared a lot more in 2005.

The annual leakage of NFL Combine Wonderlich test scores. Let the insulting begin, because-gasp-some football players are dumb.

Happy St. Patty’s day. Only a few links today since all of you should be out drinking.

If you haven’t seen the A-Rod photo spread from the April issue of Details yet, then do yourself a favor and click here. No Homo? Not Quite.

Are you one of these guys?

Interesting final column from the departing ESPN Ombudswoman. It would behoove ESPN to take her opinions to heart.

Your 2009 Washington Nationals!

I’ll take uses for the word ‘rape‘ for $800, Alex.

Finally, a glimpse at St. Patty’s day around the NFL, KSK style.

Another Monday, but this week doesn’t seem so bad. We’ve got March Madness kicking off on Thursday; games to watch online while at work, brackets to fill out, money to gamble and beer to drink. Bring it on.

This week is clearly going to be all about college hoops, but here’s one story that’s gonna be major: Browns WR Donte Stallworth hit and killed a pedestrian with his Bentley; charges are expected to be filed, as reports are indicating Stallworth was legally intoxicated. If his BAC was over the limit, his career and life are effectively over. Wow.

Bizarre and tragic story out of Iraq here.

Phil Mickelson won this past weekend. And he was so sick he had to go the hospital but he fought through it. Yawn. Mickelson is the most contrived, phony douchebag in sports, yet people love him. I don’t get it.

And now the obligatory NCAA tourney links:

Awful Announcing with an excellent compilation of game times and announcing teams.

Luke Winn (CNNSI) and Pat Forde (ESPN) weigh in with their initial thoughts on the brackets.

The weekend is upon us, and its time to get March Madness going. In many ways, conference tournaments are my favorite part of the college hoops season, as the familiarity of rivals often yields intense, competitive games…

Like last night’s absolutely epic 6OT tilt between UConn and the ‘Cuse. Wow. Considering I missed this game, I don’t have too much to add. A Syracuse fan blog has you covered with a nice compilation of links and information here.

Another breakdown of last night’s conference tourney action here.

Sir Charles goes on a radio show, and mouths off about driving drunk 100 times per year. I’m sure TNT will be thrilled with that, Chuck.

If these allegations are true, then Marco Jaric needs to go straight to federal pound me in the ass prison. If you look like this, and risk messing things up with your new wife, who looks like this, then you don’t deserve your freedom.

Enjoy the weekend everyone.

We’re about to be knee deep in conference tournament action, so here’s a few links to explore before bracketology consumes us all:

It’s a shame that the stretch run of the NHL regular season will be completely overshadowed by the NCAA tournament; it’s going to be a fun ride to the finish.

Papelbon throws Manny under the bus; the world shrugs and moves on.

A look at the incredibly virile Travis Henry and the child support mess he’s in.

Get caught up on voting for The Big Lead’s 2009 Culture Tournament here.

If you’ve seen Watchmen, click here immediately. If you haven’t, go catch it. Forget the naysayers and critics; it’s a well made, entertaining (if a bit long) flick.

Halfway through the week, and inching ever closer to Selection Sunday and the onset of March Madness, that glorious time of year when people who don’t know crap about sports become college basketball experts. Awesome. Everyone loves doing their brackets at the office, and reveling in the orgy of hoops on the tourney’s first weekend, but come on people; if you watch Sportscenter a time or two per week, I do NOT want to hear your analysis of UNC’s backcourt or Pitt’s frontline or your “sleeper” team. Fill out your brackets, get crushed, and leave me be. Ok, rant over. On to today’s linkage:

Ohio high school hoops player nails a 90 footer. Not too shabby, dude.

As you’ve no doubt heard, the “powerhouse” Dominican Republic team was bounced from the WBC by…the Netherlands. I’m sure you also know that in the Netherlands, baseball is called ‘Honkball.’ Nice job, DR! The curse of A-Rod derails another team’s ambitions….

Sad story that includes the first interview with former NBA star Rodney Rogers since he was paralyzed in an ATV accident down in N.C. By all accounts, Rogers is a terrific person. Why couldn’t stuff like this happen to a-holes like A-Rod, or Mike Vick, or Jeff Kent?

University of Washington stud John Brockman gets sweet revenge on a would be prank caller by invoking the wrath of his Twitter army. (No, seriously)

The drama in Denver between the Broncos and Jay Cutler continues. This is really dumb on both sides. New coach Josh McDaniels should not risk screwing up his locker room before the first practice, and Jay Cutler should man up, quit bitching about his feelings and lead his team. He went to Vanderbilt, he should well understand that the NFL is a business, and he’s nothing more than a commodity. He’s getting paid very, very well to play a game for a living. Show up, demonstrate some leadership and quit being a douche! The greatest arm in the world won’t make up for a complete lack of emotional maturity, you turbo.

Wow, does Daylight Savings Time suck or what? Interesting weekend in sports. People are already writing off the Yanks this season due to A-Rod’s various injuries, T.O. signed with the Bills (?!?), college hoops is about to take over our lives for the next month, and Sir Charles went to jail. Good times. A nice assortment of randomness to close out your Monday:

The aforementioned Sir Charles didn’t exactly serve hard time.

Bobby Bowden’s all time coaching record is going to be adversely affected as the NCAA lays the lumber on Florida State. Dag-gum-it!

A prominent defensive player in the AFC East reacts to T.O.’s arrival int he division.

It only took Adam Jones a few hours of filming on the set of “Pros vs. Joes” to get into a fight. Pretty much the worst thing he could have done if he is holding out ANY hope of reinstatement by the NFL; I used to think the guy got a bad rap, but now I’m not so sure. Dude has some serious issues.

This is just bizarre; there is apparently some evidence that some of the $$ used to whack Nancy Kerrigan’s knee at the ‘94 Olympics came from….. George Steinbrenner?

Your weekly dose of Sydney Crosby hate can be found here, so enjoy that.

This guy’s hero is undoubtedly Cal Naughton Jr.

Finally, Awful Announcing has you covered with a handy compilation of NCAA Men’s Basketball conference tournament schedules.