If It’s March, It Must Be … Madness!

If you've been living under a rock, have been out of the country, or simply aren't paying attention to every station on television, let me inform you that the NCAA men's basketball tournament is under way. 

In its new format, 68 teams have the chance to take home the title. However, purists - and anybody who knows anything about the sport - believs that the tournament actually started Thursday after the four play-in games narrowed the field to 64.

If you forgot to fill out your bracket or just haven't seen one, here is a quick wrap up of storylines you need to know. 

Pittsburgh has the easiest draw of the No. 1 seeds but by all rights shouldn't be a 1-seed.  That honor should have gone to Notre Dame, the 2-seed of the Southwest region, seeing as the Irish beat Pitt in Pittsburgh. 

Clemson, VCU and UAB made it into the field of 68 while overly deserving teams like Colorado, Virginia Tech, and Harvard are watching from home.  Of those three, Colorado is by far the biggest snub.  Let's just say this - Colorado beat Kansas State three times this season, and K-State is a 5-seed!

Clemson didn't have a single win against the top 50 this year and were a puzzling pick, but proceeded to trounce UAB Tuesday night.  A UAB team that only had a single victory this year against a top 50 team (VCU).

The whole thing is a bit convoluted, but we're talking about the last few teams in, so it's not like any of those schools have a real chance at advancing deep into the tournament.  Mostly the committee got things right, aside from Florida being a 2-seed and Villanova being a 9-seed after finishing the season 5-10.

VCU took on USC in a play-in game between two 11-seeds in the Southwest region and the winner will take on Georgetown tonight.  USC head coach Kevin O'Neill was suspended for the Pac-10 semifinal after a verbal confrontation with a fan and is eager to get back on the sidelines.  UCLA is a 7-seed over in the Southwest region, by far the weakest of the four, and has a decent shot at advancing to the Sweet 16 after a likely meeting with Florida in the second round.

With this new format the second round is technically the third round, but I refuse to abide by that.

A 2-seed with a real chance of going deep in the tournament is San Diego State.  If the Aztecs can put up a decent shooting percentage, they'll be tough to beat.  They'll have to get past Connecticut and eventually either Duke or Texas, but they should be an absolute lock for the Sweet 16.

So go out to your local watering hole this weekend to take in all of the action.  Rudy's down on the Peninsula is a particularly nice spot to watch all of the games, but be sure to get there early because it gets crowded in a hurry!

Thrills and Volleys

As we head towards spring, not only will the temperature rise, the landscape of high school sports will shift as well. 

Basketball and soccer are over, and it's time to welcome in baseball, lacrosse, swimming, track and field, and one of my favorite sports of all-time: volleyball. 

Volleyball is synonymous with Southern California - from the multitudes of professional players that have come from Orange County to the ridiculous movies "Sideout" and "Impact Point," which starred ex-“90210” star Brian Austin Green.

Aside from those blemishes, volleyball has been an institution in California since its beginnings.  Indoor volleyball never gained as much popularity as beach volleyball, perhaps because the indoor game is more technical as opposed to the beach game, which is based more on blocking and placement shots.

Watching the two is a completely different experience, as well. This spring, when we watch our high-schoolers play indoors we'll be treated to confusing pre-serve setups to disguise the play calls, much higher verticals than you would see on sand, longer rallies, and an overall more technical game. 

The beach gives us a power blocking match with dink and dunk shots since so much of the court is open.  Basically it's 6-man with indoor game versus a 2-man game on the beach.

In my opinion, indoor is more like a back and forth tennis match.

The college indoor game is much more comparable to beach volleyball because of the incredible size and power of the attackers and blockers.  It's typically a sideout game rather than a rally-based game.

Most recently, beach volleyball has garnered attention because of women players, not men.  Kerri Walsh and Newport Harbor alum Misty May Treanor impressed the world when they won gold in Beijing in 2008.  The U.S. men also won gold in Beijing, but they didn't have the same charisma that the women did.  Treanor holds many Association of Volleyball Professionals records including career wins and consecutive match victories.

The most well-known beach players on the men's side include the likes of Sinjin Smith, Dain Blanton, Todd Rogers, the beast that is Phil Dalhausser, and the undisputed champion of the volleyball world Karch Kiraly.  Karch was an outstanding indoor player in his younger days, and an even better beach player.

I was heartbroken in November when I heard that the AVP filed for bankruptcy and claimed they had in the low six-figures in assets but owed in middle seven-figures to the tour winners.  It's a wonderful sport that just couldn't get as much of a crowd as others could.  Even broadcasting tournaments live on NBC every Saturday couldn't boost the AVP's ratings.

Regardless, volleyball will always be an entertaining sport, to me at least, and the future of the game lies with our youth. 

This spring I really encourage Newport Beach to come out and watch this game if you haven't before.  You'll be amazed at what these kids can do.

That Sinking Feeling

A few summers ago, my girlfriend at the time convinced me to take a sailing class over at OCC's School of Sailing & Seamanship on PCH.  She signed up for the class, but since the boats were lidos with two-person crews, she wanted me to join the class so it could be a "me and her" activity,

Worst. Idea. Ever.

Now before I tell you this story, you need to know that I'm by no means a sailor.  I've been on boats, I like boats, but in no way, shape, or form have I ever sailed a boat. 

Having said that, I was still infinitely better than my ex-girlfriend.

My first day in the class was everybody else's second, so they had a four-hour head start on me.  They had gone over the basics the previous week, learned about the different pieces of the boat, and even went out on the water for a couple of hours.  I started the class and could hardly tie a figure-8 knot. 

Probably still can't.

Regardless, I listened up and tried to soak in as much information as I could, but after only 30 minutes or so of class instruction, we were hitting the open seas. 

Well, the open harbor. 

We went out and put on our lifejackets, grabbed our equipment for constructing the boats, and began assembling.  I obviously had no idea what I was doing, so I mostly watched and learned.

Once everything was together and the sails were up, we headed out one by one.  Luckily, it wasn't overly windy that day, but we did get some speed going eventually.  I started out working the jib and observing what everybody else was doing.  They warned us that the lidos could capsize very easily and the masts could stick into the ocean floor.

We survived the day, but the next day was nothing but trouble!  High winds and a lack of experience combined for a dicey day, to say the least. 

I was steering and operating the main sail when a huge gust took us, turned us off course towards other docked boats, and nearly flipped us upside down.  The entire deck was under about two feet of water, and when I looked up to see if my ex had let out the jib sail so we could re-group and get back on track, she was trying to bail out the water with a bucket.

That's exactly what they tell you not to do in that situation.

After heated exchanges, name calling, and screaming, we got back upright.  It was utter chaos.

The moral of this story is, if you're going to participate in stressful sports you know nothing about with your girlfriend, do so carefully. 

My experience wasn't pretty.

Play Ball!

With rain coming this weekend and spring seemingly refusing to get here early this year, I thought I'd take a minute to do a preview of what spring will bring in the world of sports, if and when it does arrive. 

Now I know as a country we're mostly in love with football, basketball, and NASCAR according to television ratings, but spring has always meant one thing to me growing up in Southern California: baseball.

It kind of snuck up on me when pitchers and catchers began reporting to spring training.  Position players soon followed and all of the funky spring leagues are beginning to take shape as they kick off this week.  All of the local teams - Angels, Dodgers, and Padres - play in the Cactus League in Arizona.

Something about the smell of the grass covered with dew in the mornings and the crisp air of March and Aril just scream baseball to me.  Once football is over and the basketball season still has months to go to become interesting, baseball begins and reminds us all why it's our nation's pastime.  Spring and baseball have been a part of my life ever since I was in T-ball.  Putting on the uniform and breaking out the old glove, which still smelled like last season, was always a February ritual.

Side note: It's an incredible shame that players don't wear the old stirrups anymore.  Remember?  The ones that go underneath your socks in your cleats.

My dad would take me to the Angel games the first few weeks of the season and we'd go hours early to watch the Angels take batting practice and possibly get an autograph.  However, not from Wally Joyner since he passed me up in an autograph line once, so I've always had a chip on my shoulder about him.  I wish our baseball youth had the chance to watch the Angels hit still, but now they only let you in to see the tail end of the visiting team warming up, and who really wants to see the Orioles take batting practice?

Want some good storylines to the upcoming season?

Albert Pujols is in his contract year, playing for a long-term deal that could possibly give him the highest annual salary for an athlete in the history of North American sports. 

The Red Sox spent an ungodly amount in free agency and we'll watch and see if the "title-buying" experiment pays off or fails them. 

Will a central division send a team to the World Series for the first time since 2006?

Local storylines include the McCourt divorce and how it will affect the Dodgers and if Don Mattingly can squeeze the talent out of his young outfield and middle-aged starting rotation. 

The Angels overspent on Vernon Wells, but they're hoping he will strengthen what should be a better than average rotation and possibly dominant bullpen. 

Can the Padres handle losing Adrian Gonzalez?

I truly look forward to baseball every spring.  Maybe when you pass by a park here in Newport and see the little leaguers out there, you'll be in the spirit as well.

Plays I’d Like to See

Occasionally over here at the Indy, our writers are lucky enough to get to review a show over at the South Coast Repertory.  Currently, there is a wonderful re-telling of “A Midsummer Night's Dream” on the Segerstrom Stage that has been given terrific reviews. 

The reason I'm bringing this up on the sports page is that I never get to go to these shows because they're never about sports!  So here's my plea to the SCR; please put on a show about sports, because there are tons of wonderful and heart-warming stories in the genre.

It's not like I'm the first one to have the idea to make sports the subject of a musical or play, I just want it to be on our doorstep.  There have been several sports-oriented stories adapted for live theater, but I also have some other ideas.

“Damn Yankees” is a wonderful musical that had a gargantuan run on Broadway in the '50s.  For those who don't know, it's the story of Joe Boyd, a miserable Washington Senators fan, who makes a deal with the devil to have his Senators win the pennant. 

Joe Boyd becomes "Joe Hardy," the slugger the Senators needed all along.  In joining the team Joe has to leave his wife Meg, and some shenanigans, including a temptress named Lola, ensue when he's away with the team.  After allegations that Joe is really an escaped criminal and con artist named Shift McCoy, Joe has his day in court on the same day that the Senators play the Yankees for the pennant.  I won't spoil the ending, but it's a great one!

Even “The Changing Room” had a good run on Broadway and was nominated for a Tony Award for best play.  The story of a northern England rugby team evolves with the brutal injuries, hopes, dreams, and everyday problems of the players.  This very interesting character-discovering play would be great for the SCR.

Other ideas?

How about “Brian's Song” as a play?  The 1971 ABC movie of the week is a wonderful, heartbreaking story about the relationship between Bears running backs Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers.  Piccolo is stricken with cancer and Sayers, a Hall of Famer, helps him through his struggles.  Any sports fan who has seen this movie and claims he or she wasn’t brought to tears is lying.  This movie was made for the SCR stage!

How about a play about the infamous ball that went through Billy Buckner's legs?  How about a melodrama about the age of steroids starring Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds as the lead antagonists?  How about a new version of “Damn Yankees” that's just a play about how we all hate the Yankees?

Perhaps that last one was just for me, but you get the point.  Please SCR, I beg you, put on a play about sports so I can review it and share it with the people. 

Last suggestion: a musical comedy starring Manny Ramirez, Dennis Rodman, Ron Artest, and Chad Ochocinco!