This weekend could be one of the better ones in Wisconsin athletic history. Women's hockey has the chance to repeat as national champions, wrestling can bring home a few individual national champions and incredibly enough, the men's hockey team could make it to the NCAA Tournament despite a record barely above .500. Plus ,there's the whole men's basketball thing. If all these teams win, there will be much rejoicing, but a few events could make this weekend truly extraordinary.
When Michigan State gets past Marquette Thursday (never count out Tom Izzo/Drew Neitzel, and MU's Jerel McNeal is out for the first round), MSU fans need to step it up for the battle against North Carolina. Perhaps around 300 of them could get their faces painted, get all dressed up and scream ""For Spartans!"" at the very top of their lungs every time a Tar Heel is shooting a free throw. Tyler Hansbrough already has to deal with a mask—tell me it wouldn't throw off his game to look left and see a bunch of crazy Spartans dressed in ancient garb yelling at him. Plus, if MSU wins, seeing the look of terror on Mike Krzyzweski as Spartan fans rush the court would be priceless.
With the women's Frozen Four in Lake Placid this year, Badger fans traveling to the game need to do some homework. Their assignment: find a player on St. Lawrence, Minnesota-Duluth or Boston College who is descended from a former Soviet nation and chant ""USA"" every time she touches the puck. If that can't be accomplished, give head coach Mark Johnson an extremely loud whistle so every time UW scores, he blows the whistle and yells ""Again!"" And as an afterthought, I wouldn't mind seeing the Badgers win, either.
Just once, I'd like to win my women's basketball bracket. My theory of picking upsets doesn't seem to be working, so here's my new advice to any prospective women's basketball gamblers. In your bracket, find the No. 1 seeds (this year's class surprisingly includes Connecticut, Duke, North Carolina and Tennessee—that doesn't happen often). Move said No. 1 seeds to Final Four and pick Duke to win it all. And before I get hate mail, let me point out that three of the last four years, three No. 1 seeds and a No. 2 seed have made it to the Final Four. If a No. 1 seed loses this weekend, I will give 20 dollars to the first person that e-mails me to let me know.
On the men's side, I would appreciate it if my Final Four teams would make it out of this weekend unscathed. Nothing takes the air out of my March Madness sails more than losing a big game in the first weekend; Illinois did it to me a few years ago and it still stings. Also, I'm all for upsets this weekend, but let's not water down the field too much like last year. The first weekend was amazing, but the second weekend ended up being bland because there wasn't as much talent.
So hunker down sports fans, it's going to be a long weekend in front of the TV.
