A Case of the Mondays

As the saying goes "all good things must come to an end" and so concluded what seemed to be an entirely too short weekend and the beginning of yet another work week. Fortunately enough it is only a four day work week with Friday being a faculty inservice day and having next Monday off. If you don't recognize the title of the blog post I feel bad for you and would suggest you get your priorities in order immediately and watch "Office Space." The next couple of weeks is literally one of my favorite times of the year with the beginning of March Madness. The NCAA Tournament selection show isn't until Sunday but conference tournaments are already under way and should provide some great match ups.

Tonight on ESPN 2 College of Charleston faces off against Wofford in the Southern Conference Tournament Championship game. A high school basketball team mate and friend of mine is on the CofC basketball coaching staff so I will be tuning in to watch that one and hopefully cheering on the Cougars to a conference championship and a NCAA tournament berth.

Another conference tournament that I am excited for is the Big East tournament. If I had a sports bucket list (future post idea) attending the Big East Tournament in Madison Square Garden would definitely be high on it. A sixteen team conference playing five rounds of games in five days is exciting enough but this year the Big East is absolutely loaded.  They've got four teams in the top fifteen and nine teams in the top twenty five.

Obviously the other conference tournament that I'll be tuning into is the SEC Tournament which tips off this Thursday at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The Vols, who had possibility of landing the #2 seed in the East and a 1st round bye with a win Sunday, ended up losing to Kentucky and falling all the way to the #5 seed. The Vols will face the Arkansas Razorbacks Thursday at 7:30pm. I'm thinking about going to the game but I've really got mixed emotions about anything involving the Georgia Dome and the Vols. Tennessee athletics as a whole has a terrible track record in the Dome. I've personally seen the Vols lose in football to LSU in the SEC Championship Game in 2008 (Thanks Ainge) and to Virginia Tech in the 2009 Peach Bowl. In my one game watching them play basketball there (The Georgia Dome is a terrible venue for basketball) I saw the Vols as the #1 seed barely beat South Carolina. My friends and I had plans to watch the next round game but a storm hit Atlanta and the games had to be moved to Georgia Tech so we went down to PCB for our college senior year spring break instead.

The Vols lost earlier in the year to Arkansas at home 68-65 in their 1st SEC game of the year. I think that this is a game that the Vols really need to win to secure their NCAA tournament bid. A record of 18-13 isn't that impressive and a loss would take them to 18-14 and they'd definitely be sitting firmly on the bubble. Their one saving grace would be their big wins over Pittsburgh, Villanova, and the season sweep of Vanderbilt. Hopefully the Vols win against Arkansas and then they'd face off against the Gators Friday at 7:30pm. As I said before I think a win against Arkansas secures a seed in the tournament, probably in the 8/9 game, and any other wins would improve seeding. One player who I think would go along way towards securing those wins is a healthy Brian Williams. While Williams isn't the most polished offensive player I think that Vol fans really noticed his absence on the offensive and defensive glass. Hopefully with Brian Williams back in the line up the Vols win, my fearless prediction for Thursday's game is 74-65 Vols.

Unless something drastic happens, like college friends from Tennessee coming in town or receiving good free tickets, I'm thinking that I'll spend Thursday at Taco Mac watching the Vols play, eating some wings, and adding a few beverages on my Brewniversity account.