As the regional finals approached Saturday, all four one-seeds were feeling the effects of college basketball’s deathmatch postseason format, as two teams advanced to Detroit and two came up short. UConn managed to finally derail that gritty Missouri squad on Saturday and North Carolina took care of business against Oklahoma last night.

In the best game of the weekend, Villanova snuck past Pittsburgh with one of those last-second “I’m gonna drive the length of the floor and lay it in because everyone’s afraid to foul me” shots and the Fighting Novs punched their ticket to Detroit, which in a national championship context is much more glamourous than it sounds. Michigan State knocked off 1st-seeded Louisville yesterday in a game that everyone is calling ugly I guess because both teams decided to play defense. The Cardinals, who scored 103 points in their regional semifinal game against Arizona, barely mustered half that total against the Spartans, losing 52-64. The Spartans earn an unlikely berth for the Big Ten conference and will play for the national championship a mere 90 minutes from their campus in East Lansing.

Take a look at my bracket (and possibly yours) after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

Saint Andrew’s Net is With Leather’s daily link dump. It has quite the disdain for pants.

• Another permutation of “the Guitar Hero” commercial, this time with Bobby Knight in his underwear. And after that, it gets a little uncomfortable
  |via Pat at FanIQ|
• The Spartans’ heading to the Final Four is one of the few feel-good moments for The State Up North of late
  |Rumors And Rants|
• Here’s a solid rundown of candidates to replace Billy Gillispe at Kentucky
  |Vent About Sports|
• A uniform review of college hockey’s Sweet Sixteen
  |Uni Watch|
• The city of Indianapolis just wrapped up a big hoops weekend; that’s good news for the local economy |Indy Cornrows|
• Roger Goodell wants to bring back NFL Europe…sort of
  |Cat Crave|

Send tips and submissions to WithLeather@gmail.com. Be sure to tell ‘em Large Marge sent you.

Each week at WL we pick the winners for the weekend’s hottest matchups. No sleazy 900 number required
|Img Cred|

Louisville over Arizona. As a Pac-10 team, you could say that Arizona was hardly a Cinderella. But isn’t someone going to The Dance that really shouldn’t have been there the very definition of a Cinderella? Eh, either way, it won’t matter after tonight.

Syracuse over Oklahoma. Yeah, Blake Griffin’s probably the best in the country, but this is the College Basketball Deathmatch, and Syracuse will be better prepared for this game.

Michigan State over Kansas. Big Ten homer pick. Don’t look at me like that. Just because their conference is weak, top-to-bottom, doesn’t mean that they contend for the big chair at the table. Or any of the three other, slightly smaller chairs.

UNC over Gonzaga. Gonzaga needs to just go away now. I still think UNC will fall against Pitt in the national semis, but after last night, I’m not nearly as confident.

A power rankings list is just a stupid, idiot-friendly form of prose that serves no purpose other than the self-aggrandizement of the author. Unless we do it. Then they kick all kinds of ass.

1. Kristanna Loken. Because she’s hot and I’m so far behind.

2. Nicky Whelan. It figures that David Spade would have to go all the way to Australia to hit that, but it was seriously worth the trip.

3. Duke Losing. Maybe they’re not as talented as in years past, but the sound of the Blue Devils falling still rings just as sweetly in my ears.

4. Columbus Blue Jacket Haters. Looks like they’re actually making the playoffs this year. So cue the threatening Flames fan…

5. Daulerio giving out Colin Cowherd’s phone number. Unreal.

You Get The Idea. Tiresome Nonsense. However If You, Fine Commentariat, Would Like To Respond To This Gentleman’s Opinion, Please Give Him A Call: [REDACTED] “Let’s See If We Can Shut Down A Phone…”

You heard the man.

6. Bacon. Jim Gaffigan’s bacon bit’s on Warming Glow.

7. Twitter. Pretty solid ranking for the biggest waste of time ever.

8. Jeff George. Still hoping to get into somebody’s camp. That’s amazing that he can even walk. What is he, like, 55?

9. Base jumping. But this part of it kinda blows.

10. A Dog Milking A Goat. It’s self-explanatory, really.

I don’t want to hear anyone bad-mouthing this young man for showing his Cubs fandom at spring training by wearing a cropped women’s top.  Yes, Wrigley Field is located close to Boystown, but there’s no need for anyone to call his sexuality into question.  There could be any number of explanations, and you shouldn’t need to insult this gentleman just to feel better about yourself.  Like, maybe that was his sister’s favorite top, and she died and now it has lots of sentimental value.  Maybe he lost a bet.  Maybe it’s just a really comfortable shirt.

…or maybe you’re just jealous of those abs, you catty little bitch.

|image source via Home Run Derby|

I guess Fanhouse picked this up last week, but hermaphrodite athletes always get the green light around here. Wait, what I meant to say was…when a woman has a penis, I want to find out more about it. No! I was trying to say that women that used to have penises are in demand…No, no, actually, see…if there’s a woman that has a…forget it. Just roll the blockquote.

Sarah Gronert, 22, was born with both male and female genitalia but later had surgery to remove the male organs and is now legally certified as a woman. But even with the surgery, the tennis world is locked in a debate over whether she belongs on the women’s professional circuit.

The coach of one player who was bested by Gronert says no way ["No way, Jose!" Although this took place in Germany, and the chances of being called "Jose" there are quite slim, I'd guess--Ed].

“There is no girl who can hit serves like that, not even Venus Williams,” said Schlomo Tzoref, who coaches player Julia Glushko. Glushko recently lost to Gronert in a tournament in Israel.

Transgendered people in sports drive me nuts. And it’s not because I’m some big, mean, tranny hater. It’s because the gender line is one of the last surviving relics of society, and that’s not even a line anymore. It looks like some streaked glass window that Najeh Davenport wiped his ass on. So I don’t know how you’d say, “Eh, she could play,” but I also don’t know how you’d say she couldn’t.

I bet she could smoke some mean pole, though. …WHO SAID THAT?!

|NY Daily News|