Notre Dame isn't great but it's good enough to play for pretend title

^
Nobody has ever accused me of being a Notre Dame homer. In fact, I'd never hide the fact that, as a Marquette guy, I'd just as soon the Irish lose every basketball game they play. And, unlike some of my fellow Warriors, I didn't root for ND football just because that was the big Catholic school.

Having said all that, I'll say this: Notre Dame, as much as any team can, "deserves" to play in the mythical national championship game.

Notre Dame plays a national schedule, which is more than Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Oregon, Kansas State, Ohio State and any other team can say.

Are there cupcakes on the ND schedule? Sure. Name a school that doesn't play a bunch of those. Did ND have to squeak out victories over a few mediocre teams? Sure. Name a team that didn't have some close calls against inferior opposition.

Notre Dame played road games against Michigan State, Oklahoma and USC as well as home games against Michigan and Stanford. All were ranked in somebody's top 10 at some point this season. Each team fell to the Irish.

Notre Dame isn't one of the great teams of all time. Nor is it even one of the great teams of recent vintage. I'm guessing that the Irish will be underdogs against either Alabama or Georgia in the pretend title game. But for the first time in years, Touchdown Jesus didn't have to cover his eyes when the home team was playing.

The Irish did everything they had to do to be ranked No. 1 in the ridiculous, convoluted, unsatisfying system college football uses to crown its make-believe champion.

The sport is better when Notre Dame matters. It will be even better if the Irish are playing for a real championship in a few years after the BCS goes bye-bye.
^

Moolah trumps "Boolah! Boolah!" every time

^

While contemplating why the Bears felt compelled to extend the contract of a QB who has yet to prove anything and whether the Cubs' signing of new hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo means another tour of duty for Milton Bradley, I posted another exclusive column on SportsFanLive.com.

The topic: Should top pro prospects - such as Sam Bradford and Jimmy Clausen - bolt college for the big bucks as soon as they can? Click here for my take.

Hats off to victors (Mizzou) - and even to victims (Marquette)

^

Sunday's final four:

1. Because Michigan State somehow was chosen as Chicago's "home" team - even though Marquette has a massive alumni base here and is only an hour and a half away - I had to watch most of the Marquette-Missouri game on a laptop computer while Michigan State-USC droned on in the background on my beautiful HDTV. CBS's feed repeatedly froze and the network experienced a couple of long stretches of outages due to its own technical difficulties. It was like the Dark Ages, man, so ... so ... so ... 2006!

2. My lads fought valiantly but couldn't quite pull off the upset. I'd love to blame the refs or injuries or sunspots for the 83-79 loss, but Missouri earned the victory by playing extraordinarily well in the first half and then coming through in the clutch. Even though Marquette's season is over, I really enjoyed this edition of the Golden Warrior Eagles. The class of Jerel McNeal, Dominic James and Wes Matthews played hard and well for four years. As a fan, I never felt cheated, and there's not much more we can ask for from our athletes. 

3. Between Wisconsin's hack-first defense, the Badgers' slow-mo offense and the refs calling a foul every time a player on either team breathed on an opponent, the Wisconsin-Xavier game had all the pace and entertainment value of somebody changing a flat tire. I'm still trying to figure out how Wisconsin made the tourney, how the Badgers beat Florida State in the first round and how Xavier merited a No. 4 seed. I'd say that Xavier's stay in the tournament from here on in will be a short one, but its next opponent, Pitt, hasn't exactly been playing like the team so many folks (including this folk) picked to win it all.

4. How's your bracket? I'm not going to set any records, but I'm 37-11 after the first two rounds and still have seven of my final eight alive. (West Virginia? Oy! What was I thinking?) I'm looking forward to next weekend, when the stars really will shine. Who will emerge as the one transcendant star - the guy who, like Stephen Curry in 2008 - everybody will be talking about? Terrence Williams? Blake Griffin? Ty Lawson? Hasheem Thabeet? Gerald Henderson? DeJuan Blair? JaJuan Johnson? Tyreke Evans? Jonny Flynn? I'm thinking Griffin is really going to put on a show in carrying Oklahoma past Lawson, Tyler Hansbrough and the rest of the Tar Heels. Regardless of what happens, it will be fun watching it unfold.

Missing Tiger, whiffing Cubbie

^

The Bald Truth

First, he lost in match play to some dude who had to use a long putter, and now he's tied for 40th place at Doral?

Hey, I thought this Eldrick Woods guy was supposed to be good.

The Quote

"If I used a DH today, I would have a big headache, so we'll let Carlos get his at-bats." - Lou Piniella

Oh, Carlos Zambrano got his at-bats in Thursday's exhibition game against the Japan WBC team. Two of them. Result: 2 Ks, 4 LOBs.

Who does Cra-Z think he is? Kosuke Fukudome?

At least Zambrano fessed up to caring deeply about being named the opening day starter for the fifth straight season. He had been saying it didn't matter.

It matters to Carlos. And to anybody who wants to see the Cubs win the opener. In four career first-day starts, Cra-Z is winless and has a 5.59 ERA. 

He has admitted that he puts too much pressure on himself, which kind of makes you wonder why not just let Ryan Dempster take the start this year at Houston.

Maybe Lou just wants Zambrano's bat in the lineup against Roy Oswalt.

THE BALDEST TRUTH

I felt kind of bad after watching my Marquette Golden Warrior Eagles battle back from a 17-point deficit only to lose at the buzzer to Villanova. Then I saw some of Thursday's other scores.

Pitt, the team I declared the nation's best just a few days ago, was smacked around pretty good by West Virginia. Oklahoma and UConn, two other possible NCAA tourney No. 1 seeds, were upset by Oklahoma State and Syracuse, respectively. Kansas lost to Baylor and Clemson fell to the ACC's last-place team, Georgia Tech.

Hey, at least Villanova is one of the best dozen teams in the country.

Yeah, I know: Moral victories are for wimps.

Guilty as charged.

Hoops, hoops and more hoops

^

An elite eight's worth of observations from a wild (and wildly entertaining) weekend of college hoops:

1. It doesn't mean they'll win the title, of course, but the Pitt Panthers are the best team in the country. They beat UConn twice, have three big-time difference-makers and lots of fine supporting actors. And they're not coached by Dave Wannstedt.

2. Nine teams can win the national championship: Pitt, UConn, North Carolina, Duke, Oklahoma, Louisville, Michigan State, Kansas and Memphis. I'm already completely psyched for the NCAA tourney.

3. Most assume Oklahoma stud Blake Griffin will be the national player of the year, but the MVP apparently is Dominic James. Before he broke his foot, my Marquette Golden Warrior Eagles were in first place in the nation's best conference, were ranked No. 8 in the country and were 23-4. Without him, they've gone 0-4 and almost surely won't be seeded higher than sixth in the NCAAs. How could we have known that a 5-foot-10 guy who can't hit 50 percent of his free throws could be so valuable? OK, so maybe they would have lost to UConn, Louisville, Pitt and Syracuse even with James, but ...

4. The Big East is the best conference in the country - and the contest isn't close. Even after the beastly Pitt-UConn-Louisville troika, any of the next four Big East squads would have a good chance of finishing in the top two of just about any other league. I like Memphis' style and coaching ... but really, where would the Tigers have finished if they had to play a Big East schedule instead of a Conference USA schedule? 

5. There's a bigger difference between Michigan State and the rest of the Big Ten pack than there is between any other Big Six conference leader and the rest of its field. Aside from Tom Izzo's lads, the Big Ten features several solid-but-severely-flawed teams that won't survive the opening weekend of the NCAAs.

6. On the one hand ... Chris Lowery has demonstrated why coaches want to get theirs when the opportunity arises. Early in his tenure at Southern Illinois, he had great success with Matt Painter's recruits and received some overtures from major programs. Lowery stayed put - after getting himself a nice raise - and now the program is sliding backward. You have to wonder if he has any regrets about sticking around.

7. On the other hand ... Billy Gillespie had it all at Texas A&M - a huge contract, respect in an excellent league, university support and a great pipeline into his state's prep talent. But when Kentucky came a'callin', he simply had to go, right? I mean, after all, it is Kentucky! Well, there's a lot to be said about being rich, winning big and building a program in a less pressure-filled environment. Gillespie is flaming out in Kentucky, and it won't be long before they come a'callin' again - for his head. It's one of those no-win jobs; I don't know why any coach would subject himself to it.

8. Nice try, Northwestern. For a little while there, it was almost as if you were, um, someone other than Northwestern.