Thoughts Heading into Final Four Weekend

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It's been another incredible, and perhaps more than ever, unpredictable NCAA tournament. As we head into Final Four weekend, I'm here to share some of my thoughts of the latest edition of what I believe is the best sporting event of the year.

1. View From the Top
Being a staff member of one of the most revolutionary and popular blogs from South Euclid to Lyndhurst and everywhere in between, you get certain media privileges and perks, like attending the opening round's (okay second round technically) Friday games and seeing THE Ohio State Buckeyes lay the hammer down on a #16 seed in Cleveland. The CST media crew was in force as myself and fellow CST contributors Doug, SamVox, and Sean descended... or I should say ascended... upon the Q to observe the game from a unique perspective. And by media privileges and perks I mean paying over $100 on the internet for the two afternoon games, and by unique perspective I mean sitting top row... in the upper deck. Ah yes, it's good to be a part of CST.

The CST Media Box - Top Row at the Q - 2011 NCAA Tournament

The experience was definitely unique. Ticket packages were available for either the afternoon games or the evening games, so you get two games per ticket. After downing a couple cold ones at a nearby establishment, we made our way over to the arena. The George Mason fans were in full effect as clusters of yellow and green could be seen and heard as the close game against Villanova wound down. The best part may have been listening to CST contributor SamVox angrily chastise the fans (who he perceived as not being real Mason fans) for rooting for George Mason, inexplicably yelling "We have to play them next. I hope we don't lose to them!" We at CST love SamVox's passion, but have to wonder if he realized that we'd also have to play 'Nova if they won, so it didn't really matter who the fans rooted for. One of those teams was going to win. After the Bucks swatted away the Roadrunners from San Antonio, everyone exited the arena so that the evening games' crowd could enter. I have no idea how they got everyone out of the Q in time... but my bigger question is where did the evening crowd park considering every lot was full when I parked for the afternoon games? That will always be as big of a mystery to me as the creation of the universe.

DidTheCavsWinLastNight.com

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The always useful, seldom enjoyable website DidTheCavsWinLastNight.com is quite the place to visit, today...

Spring in the Cavs' step

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Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images

Even though weather that feels like "Winter, Part Two" has settled over much of the US, to me it's finally feeling like spring.  But I don't think it's the fact that Opening Day is only two days away 

Maybe it's the spring in people's step, the tulips poking through the dirt, the birds singing a little bit louder, the sun trying just a little bit harder to seep through the clouds.  And why?

Because something good happened to Cleveland fans last night.  Because the Cavs electrified a sold-out Q crowd last night and beat the Heat in one of the most satisfying wins in a while.  And because the team made good on the bill the Cavs fans presented for showing up en force so often this season.

Great win.  Brian Windhorst opined today that Cavs fans are "too stubborn to be disenchanted."  Well that might sum us up better than any prose written earlier.

And proud of it.

Highlights after the break.  Don't usually do this, but figure I'll want to watch this a few times.

In Tressel we trust?

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Tressel's OSU future is a big, fat unknown.

Safe to say it’s not been a pleasant few days to be an Ohio State fan. On Friday night, the basketball Buckeyes let an arguably inferior opponent set the tempo in one of the most frustrating games I’ve ever had the displeasure to watch.

The team’s foreshortened tourney run did well to mask what could be a much larger issue for the school’s athletics’ program; that is, the so-called “Tattoogate” that finds Coach Jim Tressel falling deeper into a rabbit hole of lies related to his knowledge of wrongdoings perpetrated by football players including quarterback Terrelle Pryor and wideout DeVier Posey.

The worst sports fans in America

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GQ Magazine's Adam Winer ran down the fifteen "Worst Sports Fans in America" recently.  What, pray tell, makes up a bad sports fanbase?  Well, according to Winer, trangressions could include insufferable arrogance, bandwagoning, projectile launching, vicious taunting, rampant drunkenness, physical assaults, and/or rioting.  These are all fantastic descriptors to list in your Match.com profile, FYI.

Although I want to make clear that I think fans of the Browns, Buckeyes, Tribe, and Cavs are VERY FAR from the worst, I'm actually surprised that the national opinion doesn't throw one of those teams in there.  Probably Ohio State, purely based on the recent success of the football and (to a lesser extent) basketball programs.  Although OSU fans don't usually exhibit "insufferable arrogance," the sheer quantity and enthusiasm of Scarlet-and-Grey clad Americans has got to annoy some people.

Additionally, I would think the Browns fans have got to be somewhere close to the top of the list, just based on long ago (battery or beer throwing) stories, or more recent (unproven child-tackling) stories.  Then again, arrogance and bandwagonning are not exactly two of the descriptions I would use for Browns fans.  Even though this year's Cavaliers numbers have been strong, the fate of the Indians seems to be in the short-term future for the Cavs, with attendance and TV ratings almost sure to fall next year.  But then again, we'll see.

Here, however, is the list put together by Duke graduate Winer, and their main transgressions.

• 15.  LA Lakers.  Bandwagonning.  And starf****ing.
• 14. U of Oregon basketball:  General jackassedness.
• 13. U of Wisconsin football.  Drunkenness.  Gotta guess this isn't unique, but they do administer breathalyzers to some fans in order to gain entry.
• 12.  Dallas Cowboys:  misplaced arrogance, for sure.