Congratulations to UConn men’s basketball team who are the 2011 NCAA Champions. The Huskies beat the Butler Bulldogs 53-41, in the lowest scoring championship game since 1949. The UConn students were so bored they decided to try and flip over cars.

After the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team clinched their sport in the Final Four, they were congratulated by Jay-Z in the locker room… but hanging with Hova comes at a price and has prompted an NCAA investigation. Under NCAA regulations, NBA owners are not allowed to interact with collegiate athletes. Because Jay-Z is co-owner of the New Jersey Nets he is prohbited from having any contact with amateur athletes. 

In 2007, Boston Celtics GM Danny Ainge was fined $30,000 for sitting with then University of Texas star freshme Kevin Durant’s mom. Lucky for Jay-Z, $30,000 is nothing!

Michael Jordan visited his alma mater before North Carolina took on the Washington Huskies for a spot in the Sweet 16. Jordan led the Tar Heels to an NCAA basketball championship in 1982 and wished the team good luck… but also knocked some of the players for wearing Kobe Bryant’s basketball shoes instead of Air Jordans. The players responded to Jordan asking for the high-in-demand “cool grey” Jordan 11s, but according to Jordan they have one more task to complete, “Get to the Final Four and you can get anything you want!”

Greg Gumbel momentarly forgot what network he worked for during his broadcast of the NCAA tournament and accidentally called CBS ESPN. Although Gumbel worked for ESPN for almost 20 years, CBS pays the big bucks to the broadcasting rights.

“Colleges and universities need to stop trotting out tired excuses for basketball teams with poor academic records and indefensible disparities in the graduation rates of white and black players. And it is time that the NCAA revenue distribution plan stopped handsomely rewarding success on the court with multimillion-dollar payouts to schools that fail to meet minimum academic standards.

“…I spent time on the court with inner-city players who had been used and dumped by their universities. When the ball stopped bouncing, they struggled to find work and had difficult lives. Some died early. The dividing line for success was between those who went to college and got their degrees, and those who did not. If a team fails to graduate even half of its players, how serious are the institution and coach about preparing their student-athletes for life?”

If the NCAA touranment was based on graduation rates, Notre Dame would win.

Today was the opening round of the 2011 NCAA Tournament. While many agree that March Madness is the greatest sports day of the year, a recent documentary has casted negative light on the sport. In an ESPN documentary on the “Fab 5,” 1990s Michigan player Jalen Rose critized Duke for only recruiting “Uncle Tom” players for fear of having to pay inner city and low income families to play with the school. College basketball has long been critized for players coming out too early to go pro. Under NBA draft rules, a player is only required to play one year of college basketball before he can turn pro… more than half of the NCAA tournament teams have a less than 50 percent graduation rate.

After Virgina Tech won an ACC tournament game, head coach Seth Greenberg’s elbowed his daughter in the face when he went to hug a player. Greenberg’s daughter is a cheerleader for the Hokies and tried to congratulate her dad after the win. Unfortuently for VT, they did not make the tournament and Greenberg has to live with the burden of why he chose a player over his own daughter!

In honor of Selection Sunday….

During the Louisville-Pittsburgh basketball game, a male cheerleader made a conveniencing argument for the sport of cheerleading by almost costing his team the game. With .5 seconds left in overtime, Louisville’s Kyle Kuric dunked the ball to give the Cardinals a 62-57 lead. In the heat of the moment, a Louisville male cheerleader ran on to the court and threw the ball into the air to celebrate …. causing the Cardinals to get a technical foul, which meant two free throws for Pitt. While Louisville ended up winning the game, the cheerleader’s team spirit further tarnished cheerleading’s reputation, but if a cheerleader can lose a game doesn’t that mean it’s a sport?