It was like dAcja vu, but Sports Editor Adam Hoge was back at the United Center in Chicago for the NCAA Tournament over the weekend. Here are the weekend's highlights (and of course, lowlights):
Best team: Ok, the truth is, I spent most of the weekend on my parents' couch in Chicago with strep throat or a nasty cold or maybe even cholera. I saw the UNLV-Georgia Tech game (unfortunately) and both Badger games, but only caught about five minutes of the games that Kansas played in. That was enough to know that Kansas was far and away the best team in Chicago. I spent most of that time not watching Kansas, but watching the Badger fans watch Kansas. The looks on some of their faces said, ""Oh, this is basketball.""
Best mascot: I've finally found a mascot better than Bucky. Sorry Buckingham, but you were owned by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's tiki/monster/whatever that thing was. It was sweet though. Nice to know the mascot has a bigger budget than the Corpus Christi athletic department.
Worst mascot: So you know the kiddie ride with the bees that you can go on if you are under 36 inches tall? Well one of those bees became a costume and showed up to the Georgia Tech game Friday. Seriously, the Yellow Jacket's mascot is less intimidating than the Easter Bunny.
Most out of place team: TAMU-CC had a nice following of fans on Friday, but they didn't quite fit in. All of them had short sleeves on, none of them had coats and instead of using the ""We're No. 1"" foam fingers, their foam fingers were in the shape of the ""Hang Loose"" hand sign. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to get over the fact that there are islands in Texas.
Most annoying band: One day somebody in the Georgia Tech band decided it was cool to make a high pitched screeching noise for an entire basketball game. Now, the band does it together—for two straight hours. I remember when the Astros were in the World Series and I thought that bee buzzing noise was the most annoying sound in the world. Friday, I was praying for the Georgia Tech band to stop screeching and just start buzzing. It was a compromise.
Family business: So you probably realized that Kevin Kruger is the son of UNLV head coach Lon Kruger. I think they are actually brothers though. A lot of kids look like their dad, but very few have fathers that are their identical twin.
Then there is Jason Terry's long lost half-brother Curtis Terry—and I mean LONG lost half-brother. This guy looks nothing like Jason and seriously looks like he just got picked off the Las Vegas strip. Unfortunately, he pretty much beat the Badgers in the final minute, so Terry gets the final word.
