Can I Get Something On Ice? With back-to-back wins over number one seed New Hampshire and defending national championship Michigan State Friday and Saturday night, the Notre Dame hockey team earned their first trip to the Frozen Four, also becoming the first four seed to ever make the national semifinals.  Last year the Irish were the number one team in the country going into the tournament when they fell to the Spartans in the national quarterfinals, but this year they snuck into the tournament as a four seed and destroyed New Hampshire 7-3 before slipping by Michigan State 3-1.

The Irish's opponent in the Pepsi Center a week from Thursday?  Our old friends in maize and blue - and the number one overall seed in the tournament - the Michigan Wolverines.  The Irish played the Victors twice during the regular season, losing 3-2 in a very tightly contested game in Ann Arbor and then getting blasted 5-1 in a loss at the Palace of Auburn Hills.  Because this is hockey and there's probably some sort of trickle-down effect from the incompetence of the NHL management (that, or they need to get a bunch of Nugget and Avalanche games in), the Frozen Four - which will also consist of Boston College and North Dakota - will start in ten days on the World Wide Leader.

Strangers Didn't Come Down From Old Rocky Top, Reckon They Never Will I was trying to drown my sorrows after Davidson's loss (more on that in a bit) and Ric Flair's retirement (rough night for folks in the Carolinas), and found a chance for redemption as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's team led Pat Summitt and Candace Parker by two at the half in their Sweet Sixteen contest last night.  Sadly, Tennessee showed why they're one of the two premier programs in the land and ran past the Irish in the second half to the tune of 74-64.  Our gals battled back and got it into single digits a couple of times, but Parker was an absolute monster, putting up Michael Beasley numbers with 34 points and 13 rebounds.  Parker is leaving Tennessee after this year, start playing for both the WNBA and most likely for this guy.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk, With Chalk Being The Key Word On one hand, when you have all four number one seeds make the Final Four, you're probably going to get two or three really good games.  On the other hand, the fact that UCLA and Memphis put on one of the worst Elite Eight games I've ever seen two years ago and Davidson's absence from the proceedings make me a little wishful for some upsets.  Never mind the fact that the idiot in your pool who just picks the top seeds to advance every year is going to win it, or that I get to hear Clark Kellogg pronounce his genius any time CBS is on, but I just feel kind of empty going into the final weekend of the tournament.

Maybe it was the fact you could have watched the second game of the second weekend (West Virginia vs. Xavier) and the last (Davidson vs. Kansas) and not really miss a whole lot, as blowouts were in full effect.  While Stanford, Texas, Western Kentucky, Louisville and Wisconsin were all competitive before the final hammer fell in the last quarter of the game, there were also some severe beatdowns handed out across the board.  The one thing that could have saved everything from Davidson knocking off Bill Self one game short of the Final Four again - with Gus Johnson calling it! - but that fell one shot short, as Stephen Curry was oddly made the point guard at the end of the game, which didn't exactly work out well.

I think the most glaring thing coming from Sunday evening was how this game did not appear to be one between a ten seed and a one seed.  Sure, the Jayhawks looked slightly larger and slightly more athletic, but they never really could exploit that advantage for any extended period of time.  Heck, Sasha Kaun - their lone, somewhat awkward looking Caucasian contributor - was their best player in that game, while Andrew Lovegold pretty much did whatever he wanted on the inside.  I thought the wheels were starting to come off for the Jayhawks after Davidson went up 51-47 and Brandon Rush air-balled a jumper, the crowd was really starting to taste the upset, but Kansas showed some resolve and got themselves up off the mat.  They played some fantastic defense on Stephen Curry - who had the first sub-30 point scoring game of his brief NCAA career - but you still had to love the backcourt of Jason Richards and Curry, who pretty much did whatever they wanted over the course of four games.  Storming The Floor has a couple of great Curry highlights from the Wisconsin win up, the first being the sweet ball fake in transition that opened him up for a pure three and the second a great stutter step in transition set up by his previous three-balling success, followed by a sick lay-up.  A few other thoughts on the tournament, although we'll get more in-depth later in the week:

*    Derrick Rose is really, really good.  As good as Oden and Durant were last year, if your NBA team of choice has a top two pick this year, I would nearly be equally as excited if both Rose and Michael Beasley are available.  Rose moves at such a fast pace while always remaining in total control, while his ability to score in the lane is already polished for a college freshman.  If he works on his three-point shooting in the offseason, he could be an outstanding guard from day one in the pros.  I would fully support the drafting of him at the top, and further on down, Chris Douglas-Roberts has the type of "old man skills" that could make him a very valuable addition to a NBA rotation.

*    After four years of J.J. Redick hype, it's nice to have two white guys that announcers love to verbally fellate over the course of the game who are actually good, so big props to Kevin Love and Tyler Hansbrough for backing up the excessive amount of love they get from anyone associated with ESPN or CBS.  If they play in the championship game, it would make SportsCenter absolutely unbearable between
Saturday evening and tip-off Monday.

*    Somewhere, right now, Earl Clark just traveled.

*    If you're a wrestling fan, look here before The Powers That Be take it down.  If you're a baseball fan, this might be the last little bit of juice you need to get ready for Opening Day, or perhaps this.