Final Four 2010

The NCAA tournament begins today and so does one of my favorite times of the year. Four days of watching basketball does life get any better?As one Sports Illustrated writer put it, "It's never overhyped. It never disappoints. How many things can you say that about? From start to finish, the Big Dance is the best sporting event in America."

Before the games get underway this morning here are my Final Four picks.

Duke Blue Devils



Kansas Jayhawks



Syracuse Orangemen



West Virginia Mountaineers



I like Kansas over Duke for the national championship.

In keeping with the spirit of my last post there are a few teams I would like to see do very poorly in the tournament. We'll call this my Hated Four.

I've already discused my reasons for wanting byu and Montana to fail.





Kentucky wildcats for what they have done to the Utes in tournaments past and the Richmond spiders well because I hate spiders.





There are also some teams that I would like to see do well, this would be my Favorite Four. Most these teams are not likely to win many games but it would be nice to see them win a few.

Clemson Tigers since I was in Clemson SC on my mission.



New Mexico Lobos, this seems like the best chance the Mountain West Confrence has to go deep into the tournament.

Utah State Aggies, they are from my home state and it's been a while since they've won a tournament game so I feel kind of bad for them.


UNLV Runnin' Rebels, another MWC member.


Feel free to leave a comment about who you think will be in the final four, who you like and don't like in the big dance.

Teams I Hate

After my Alma Mater Weber State was defeated in the Big Sky Conference Championships by Montana this last week I decided to write about the teams I hate and why. Most of you are probably pretty familiar with my favorite teams and schools, but loving a team also means your team probably has a rival whom you hate or loath or at least wish bad things upon them. Opposition in all things, yin & yang, good versus evil it’s the way things have been since the beginning of man.


Davis- This became a rivalry for me when half of my junior high in Farmington went to Viewmont and the other half went to Davis, so I had a lot of friends who went there. My school has a lot of advantages over Davis. Our colors were red & gold, theirs are brown & yellow, our mascot was a fearsome Viking theirs is a little dart.


Montana- This rivalry with Weber State is personal. Having played trombone in the band for the Wildcats for all five years I was in school I went to a lot of football and basketball games. Montana cost me a lot of free trips that I would have been able to take with the team had they won the conference championship in either football or basketball. Standing in the Wildcats way was usually the grizzlies.


Brigham Young- The oldest rivalry for me, this one with the University of Utah goes all the way back to when I was a little kid. Before I even knew how to play sports I knew that my family was Ute fans and that we hated the cougars. Growing up in the 80’s when byu dominated the rivalry was rough. I was mocked by friends and my family’s house was toilet papered after several byu-Utah football games.


Chicago-Being a Cardinals fan means that you hate the cubs. However this rivalry is almost comical, where the Cardinals have enjoyed much success during their history, winning 10 World Series, most in the National League and second most all time, the cubs haven’t won a World Series in over 100 years.


Oakland-If there ever was a “good versus evil” rivalry this would be it. The raiders are a bunch of criminals and their fans are even worse. Oakland coliseum looks like it is a scary place to attend a game. The Broncos and raiders both became teams in the old AFL, 50 years ago and the rivalry has been heated since day one.


Los Angeles- My hatred for the lakers comes from their success and the Utah Jazz’s lack of or that the Jazz have come so close only to come up short. It’s the big city versus the small city, the glamour of L.A. versus the quaintness of Utah. They are able to get almost any player they want while the Jazz have trouble talking players into coming to Utah. This hatred for the lakers definitely stems from jealousy.


There you have it. The evil side for all the teams I like. If you happen to be a fan of one of these teams it doesn't mean we can't be friends or I will disown you as a family member, it just means I probably won't like you as much when your team plays mine.

Disneyland

Lucy and I went to Disneyland this last week with my parents, Larians parents and her brother John and his wife Liz. We had such a good time, it was Lucy's first trip. We bought mouse ears and they gave her a badge for her first visit. It was great, hope you enjoy the pics.

She loved her visit to Pixie Hollow to meet Tinkerbell and some of her friends

She had such a good time in Toon Town meeting characters and playing in the houses and on the cars

We rode so many rides. Some of her favorites were Peter Pans Ride, the Tea Cups and It's a Small World which I rode every day with her.

We saw and did so many fun things.

I made sure that Lucy and I had coordinating shirts on every day. Utes, Broncos, Jazz, Star Wars there was new theme every day.

I had such a good time. Most the rides I rode you didn't have to be over 40 inches and I had so much fun riding them with Lucy.

Winter Olympic Cinema

It seems my “Winter Olympics” post did as well as NBC’s ratings for the winter games, poorly. I didn’t get many responses from my loyal readers, who maybe aren’t as plentiful as I thought they were. Some how curling won the pole, I don’t really believe that curling is the sport that most of you enjoy watching the most in the winter games.

As the games are drawing to a close here soon the United States continues to dominate in the medal count, proving that we are the greatest nation in the world. If you haven’t quite gotten your fill of the winter games there are a few flicks you can check out to help ease you back into normal TV viewing, though Bob Costas does not appear in any of them and or some reason the summer games aren’t as popular for movies.


The Cutting Edge- Hockey player gets hurt at the Olympic Games, can’t play hockey anymore, is then recruited by a figure skating coach to be partners with a woman who can be bested described as an ice princess. This creates a lot of romantic tension between the two as the struggle to co-exist and compete on the ice. This is really more a chic flick, some thing you men out there might not like as much but definitely will appeal to the ladies. Not bad as far as chick flicks go.



Blades of Glory- Another pairs figure skating movie, but is definitely not like “The Cutting Edge”. In this one Will Ferrell and Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) play two male figure skaters who are banned from their sport. A coach finds a loop hole though that allows them to compete in pairs skating. I found the movie hilarious. Definitely one for the guys, though you ladies may also find it humorous. Guys if your girl wants you watch “The Cutting Edge” tell her you will, but only if she’ll watch this one with you. Seems like a pretty good trade off to me. Probably not one you should watch with the kids though.


Cool Running’s- Based on the true story of the Jamaican Bobsled team, though it’s hard to say how much is true. The Jamaicans enter a bobsled team in the Olympics, coached by John Candy, it’s a light hearted look at the struggles, training and competition of team from a country with no snow. On a related note, the Vancouver games were minus the Jamaicans this year for the first time since the Calgary games. It’s fun humorous movie that the whole family can watch together.



Miracle- Also based on a true story, this one tells the story of the 1980 men’s hockey team, known as the “Miracle On Ice”. This is a great film that really shows the grit and determination of a young underdog team that upsets the big Soviet Union power house. If you don’t know the story of this team then you really haven’t ever watched a winter Olympics before. This is another great one to watch with the kids.

You've got it all here, comedy, insperation, romance and drama. Hopefully these can help your appetite for winter sports once the games have come to an end or at least get you buy until the NCAA basketball tournament starts.

Winter Olympics

The winter Olympics are here, I’d like to take this opportunity to give my take on the Vancouver games. Much like the summer games the winter Olympics are full of sports that I wouldn’t watch if it weren’t the Olympics. Actually if you take out ice hockey, which I only watch occasionally any way, it’s only sports that I watch when it’s the Olympics. It’s also a chance to take a little refresher in geography and be reminded that there are countries out there like Latvia and Liechtenstein. Also makes me wonder what countries like Ghana, Bermuda and others where they have no snow or ice are doing there.


A lot of the sports are how fast you can ride some thing down a hill. Luge, bobsled, snowboarding, skiing and skeleton for example. It’s exciting to watch for the first few runs but then it sort of becomes the same. I think tubing should also should be an event; I’d love to see people ride an old inner tube down a mountain.



Several also involve jumping in the air while going down the hill and maybe even doing tricks in the air like half pipe snow boarding, freestyle skiing and ski jumping It’s pretty amazing what these athletes can do but like the sports mentioned before it’s all kind of the same to me after the first three or four athletes.



If your event involves wearing sequins on your out fit, or if you refer to what you’re wearing as an “out fit” than you probably are a figure skater, or the guy who designs your hokey jerseys needs to be fired. This is a sport that’s tough to watch even during the Olympics because it’s so boring. One way to spice it up is to turn off the sound on your TV and put in one of your CD’s and let the routine go to one of your favorite tunes, in 2002 my friends and I enjoyed watching Sasha Coen do her routine to Jungle Boogie. I still haven’t been able to figure what the difference is between Ice Dancing and Pairs Skating.


Speed skating is like track on ice. Short track is pretty easy to watch, it goes quick, the rounds go fast and they do a bunch of skaters at one time. Long track is a little different, it takes a while and they only run two skaters at a time. Plus long track is missing Apolo Anton Ohno, who is not only known for his speed skating but also winning Dancing With the Stars. Maybe to keep the reality TV bit they could get Shaquille O’Neil to do his show Shaqs Big Challenge with Apolo.


Then there are the Nordic events. This is cross country skiing, ski jumping, biathlon which is a sport that involves cross country skiing and shooting a gun, not at the same time though and nordic combined where you ski jump and how well you do at that is how much of a head start you get in the cross country skiing portion. I’m not sure what the shooting has to do with winter and I’ve never actually been cross country skiing, but watching these athletes I think it looks pretty hard, they always look tired, cold and miserable.


And then there’s curling. I don’t even know if this is really a sport. If you’ve never watched a match then consider your self lucky. It’s an hour of your life you’ll never get back if you do. All though it is the only Olympic sport I have any hope of winning a medal in. If this is an Olympic event then I think the summer games should add biliards and bowling.



My favorite is Ice Hockey. I enjoy team sports, there are no judges involved and I think it’s fun to watch. So what is your favorite event? Take the pole and leave a comment telling us why.And what is up with the Swiss hockey uniforms? It's like they ran out of money for the uniforms.

Third Birthday

Yesterday was Lucy's third birthday and we had a big party for her. She was so excited to have a house full of people to play with, eat cake and of course get presents!

The theme was Spongebob Squarepants. We had the cake, a table cloth, cups, movies and some toys. We had all most all things Spongebob.

Lucy trying to blow out the candles



Lucy and her future cousin to be River enjoying their cake.

It was a great party. Thanks everyone who came or gave a present. Lucy had so much fun.