I will not be winning any bracket pools this year

I just did my first walk through of the NCAA Tournament bracket on ESPN. My final four was Ohio State, Syracuse, Marquette and Notre Dame...with Ohio State defeating ND 66-60 in the championship. Safe to say I'll need to go back through and re-evaluate some terrible decisions I've obviously made along the way. Admittedly, I'm a huge ND and Marquette fan, and incorrectly predicted they would play each other in the Big East and National Championship games. Although I came surprisingly close with the Big East tournament.

Later today I'll post some quick hits and thoughts on the brackets released last night. But please note my alma mater Northeastern will be traveling to Storrs, CT tomorrow night to take on UConn in a battle of Huskies in the first round of the NIT. The game will be shown on ESPN2 at 7pm. The Huskies (NU) are a #5 seed, while the Huskies (CT) are the #4 seed in their bracket.

-Bess

Lady Gaga may have sent Beyonce off the deep end

WTF is going here? When did Beyonce start drinking Gaga's Kool Aid? I mean, this has to be the most bizarre thing I've ever seen. Not only are the outfits and makeup absolutely ridiculous, but the storyline is bizarre. To quote the great Jackie Chiles, "That's totally inappropriate. It's lewd, vesivius, salacious, outrageous!"

-Bess

Umm is this kid serious?

I don't care if this was Michael Jordan giving me a Peter North facial in a pickup game at the Y, this is absolutely absurd...



WTF??? This kid should win an ESPY...right now. I'm in absolute awe.

-Bess

My new cubicle

So for those of you that don't know, I currently work for a large print vendor that's based out of NJ. Our biggest client is a pharma company in Marlborough, MA, and I work on-site as a project coordinator. I'm basically an AE working right there on-site with the client. I used to share an office with a woman who was in the same role as me, but for a competing print vendor. There are two other on-site reps that share(d) the office next to us.



Because of some recent promotions and such internally, our client decided that we were no longer worthy to hold our offices. And because we don't even work for the company, they decided we're as important as Milton in Office Space...we've basically been relegated to Storage B:



I'm sharing this thing with another person. We went from sharing a large, spacious office to this piece of dump cubicle. Even worse, the poor woman is on vacation right now cruising her ass off, drunk as hell without a care in the world. When she gets back her jaw is gonna hit the floor, and she'll wish she never got off that cruise ship. We're being told we'll get moved to something that's not as embarrassing, so we'll see how that plays out. In the meantime, I'll be holding it down every day in this fire hazard of a cubicle.

And I still have my Swingline stapler. They can move me wherever they want, that thing is coming with me every step of the way.

-Bess

MMA March Madness

The month of March is synonymous with college basketball, and that is fine, they earned it. (Let’s ignore the fact that the Final 4 is actually played in April.) But this year the world of Mixed Martial Arts is making a push for center stage. The WEC put on a card last weekend, and we still have three UFC events, yes three, as well as one from DREAM.

With only one of the next four MMA events being a pay-per-view, this is as good a time as any for non-fight fans to get involved. Here is a Cliff’s Notes version of what to watch this month.

On Sunday, March 21st, the UFC makes its Versus debut with the aptly named UFC on Versus 1. Unless you have DirecTV you will be able to watch these fights in the comfort of your own home. Four main-card bouts are scheduled for the televised portion of the card, and they are all worth watching.

Dorchester’s own John “Doomsday” Howard battles Daniel Roberts, who is filling in for the injured Anthony Johnson. Howard is a perfect 3-0 in his UFC career and looking to climb up the welterweight ladder.

Two solid heavyweight match-ups will lead into the main event. Cheick Kongo vs. Paul Buentello and Junior Dos Santos vs. Gabe Gonzaga. All four of these guys are Top 15 heavyweights in the world, a loss for any one of them would significantly hurt their title chances.

UFC on Versus 1 concludes with a light heavyweight showdown between Jon Jones and Brandon Vera. Jones is coming off his first “loss” of his career. He was DQ’d for illegal downward strikes in a bout with Matt Hamill. Jones was absolutely dominating the fight, something even Hamill admitted to afterwards. So it is safe to say Jones is going to come out with a lot to prove, and he faces the toughest opponent of his career in Vera. “The Truth” is a former heavyweight who has been in the cage with some of the best the sport has to offer including Frank Mir, Tim Sylvia, Fabricio Werdum, Keith Jardine, and most recently UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture.

Just one night following UFC on Versus 1 it’s DREAM 13 from Japan on March 22nd. (This is where DirecTV subscribers get one back, as the main card airs on HDNet.) One of the best pound for pound fighters in the world headlines the card. Joachim Hansen, a top lightweight, drops down to featherweight to square off with Bibiano Fernandez for the organization’s featherweight championship.

The UFC holds their lone PPV event on March 27th in Newark, New Jersey at UFC 111. If you like welterweights this is the card for you. The title is on the line between the nearly indestructible Georges St. Pierre and surprising contender Dan Hardy. Since being upset by Matt Serra, GSP has ripped of 6 impressive wins against the very best the UFC has to offer.

Two of those six wins cames against Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves who will have their re-match on the main-card. Fitch won the previous bout via TKO in the 2nd round all the way back in June of 2006. The winner of this fight puts themselves in great shape for another title shot vs. the either St. Pierre or Hardy.

The interim heavyweight title is also up for grabs at UFC 111. With the injury/illness to Brock Lesnar, the heavyweight title picture was put on hold. Lesnar was scheduled to fight Shane Carwin, before he was forced out of action. Frank Mir got a win over Kongo back in December, and it just made since to put these two in the cage. So the co-headliner will feature an incredible heavyweight match up for the interim title between Carwin and Mir.

The month comes to a close with UFC Fight Night 21 on March 31st. The main-card will be live on Spike TV. There is some good local flavor at Fight Night 21. Jorge Rivera, born in Milford, MA, takes on tough middleweight Nate Quarry, both fighters were featured on different seasons of The Ultimate Fighter.

In the main event Kenny Florian, born in Westwood, MA, and former Boston College soccer player, faces Takanori Gomi, in Gomi’s UFC debut. Ken-Flo has fought twice for the lightweight title, falling short both times, once to Sean Sherk and once to B.J. Penn. Those are his only 2 losses in his past 12 UFC fights. Gomi had been regarded as the top lightweight in the world while fighting in PRIDE. Gomi then lost back-to-back fights, he is now looking to get back to the top, of what has become a very strong lightweight division in the UFC.

Yes that is four fight cards in a 10-day span.

-Keefe

(This article can also be found at http://www.985thesportshub.com/ where there will soon be lots of MMA coverage, including podcasts, blogs from a team of writers, rankings, schedules, and more.)

Celtics: The More You Know

Ray Allen: drafted in 1996- 1,000 career games*
Kevin Garnett: drafted in 1995- 1,105 career games*
Paul Pierce: drafted in 1998- 862 career games*
Rasheed Wallace: drafted in 1995- 1,065 career games*
Michael Finley: drafted in 1995- 1,082 career games*

*regular season games

The Boston Celtics can put a lineup on the floor that is a combined 171 years old and that has played in a combined 5,114 regular season games. (To be fair there are 5 championship rings (1 each) amongst this group as well.)

Can any other team in the league trot out a lineup this old/ experienced?

In a word, No. Dallas comes in 2nd with 168 combined years from (Dampier, Kidd, Najera, Terry, T. Thomas.)

On the flip side, the Oklahoma City Thunder with a lineup of Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka, Harden, and Mullens = 103 years old.

The More You Know

-Keefe

Celtics Podcast 3-2-10

After a very disappointing loss to the now "6-win" New Jersey Nets, I had some time to relax and try and put things in perspective. I mean, I am a realist. I joined Brian Robb from http://www.celticshub.com to discuss the recent play of the Celtics and what to expect moving forward.

3-2 CelticsHub.com Podcast by BRobb7

-Keefe