After being panned much during the entirety of Selection Sunday, the Virginia Commonwealth University proved themselves worthy of their selection (and making said prognosticators eat crow), becoming the 2nd team from the Colonial Athletic Association to make it in the Final Four. (George Mason being the other one) Both were 11-seeds in making this accomplishment.
The Butler Bulldogs are the first team since the old-school Runnin' Rebels of UNLV in the early 90s to make back-to-back Final Four appearances coming from a school outside of the members of the BCS Power Six Conferences.
Forget the draws against Burma and Palestine
Forget the missed opportunities during those games.
Forget Ian Araneta's goal-scoring struggles.
Forget the injuries that have struck us.
Forget the earthquakes that seem to follow us
Forget the saves Neil Etheridge and Ed Sacapano have managed to secure
Forget the crosses that James Younghusband and Chieffy Caligdong procure.
Forget the presence of Angel Aldeguer Guirado and Jerry Lucena
Forget the absence of Phil Younghusband and Chris Greatwich
Forget the veteran gamesmanship of Yanti Bersales and Roel Gener
Forget the youthful exuberance of David Basa and Yannick Tuason
What matters now is what lies ahead.
A crossroad, a fork instead.
On a field of green on a land far away
The Beautiful Game will be on full display
We will be blind on the action
Instead, anticipating the Twitter reaction
As we wait for the tweets to come in
From Cedelf, Craig, Roy and even Dyan
And we, the people, will forward them constantly
As the 90 minutes (and then some) pass by
When the games begin as the clock passes five
Nothing else matters
It is only winning
Pride for flag and country
This is what it is all about
Nasa ilalim ng iisang araw
Tatlong Bituin, Dilaw, Pula, Puti, Bughaw
Sugod, Laban. Huwag uurong.
Ang sigaw na dating bulong
The Southeastern Regional is going to be played at the New Orleans Arena (home of the NBA-owned New Orleans Hornets). They were hoping that they can help improve the economy. Then they realized that BYU is one of the teams.
The Western Regional will be played at the Honda Center in Anaheim (more well known as the Pond). Yes, that might also be the future home of the Sacramento Kings, if all things hold serve.
The Eastern Regional is going to be played at the Prudential Center (Pru for short) in Newark. Yes, that is where the Nets are temporarily based until the Barclays gets built in Brooklyn.
As I was writing this, there was a slight earthquake that struck the Motherland. Reports say it was of 5.7 magnitude. Unfortunately, I did not feel it. I presume we all are tired and exhausted from the bracket monitoring we have been doing.
We learned about the Nantz's Fabricated Five, Pitt's continued bad breaks. John Henson's brain farts. And yes, the BEast possibly being a bit overrated.
I presume we will have further discussion on this soon, so I'll leave it at that.
The NCAA Tournament really starts tonight (12am here in Manila), because who really took the play-ins that seriously. Then again, this is March Madness, so... Here we go for today's games
The NCAA Tournament really starts tonight (12am here in Manila), because who really took the play-ins that seriously. Then again, this is March Madness, so... Here we go for today's games
I started writing this post on 3am, the day before the Philippine Men's Football Team will be taking the pitch in the frozen tundra of Ulan Bator. The nation is awash with giddiness of the game that is coming. We have a 2-goal advantage, but certain key elements will be missing, namely the goalkeeper, for starters. The weather will be crazy cold. But it does not matter. Everything does not matter, what goes on off the field or how we got there.
Greetings! Welcome to the latest edition of The Victory Formation.
I am sure everyone was surprised with what transpired on this end of the Pacific. If you were living under a rock, Japan just experienced their worst earthquake in centuries. I did not really feel it, but it surely affected my work as apparently, we rely on undersea cables that are routed to the US via Japan, thus rending my Friday as unproductive due to the quake. You have probably seen the different images and videos of the carnage brought about by the earthquake and the tsunami that followed. A very jarring thought, indeed.
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Meanwhile, Philippine Football will be facing off against Mongolia for their 2nd leg of the AFC Challenge Cup on March 15, 12nn local time. To prepare for the frozen tundra, (Because after all, we are a tropical paradise) they trained in Japan. So, they were in the area where the quake happened. Fortunately, they are all fine and are already in Mongolia to train for the big game. I'm already plotting whether to go watch the game in a bar with fellow football fans.
Welcome to today's edition of The Victory Formation.
I knew the importance of the game between the Bulls and the Heat and its significance. The Bulls needed a win to sweep the Heat, and the Heat are fresh from the embarrassment of that comeback the Magic pulled off and then the evisceration they got from San Antonio, so I watched the game live at 2am in the morning.
I was not alone in watching this game. Lots of people in the Motherland were up as well, not just because of the magnitude (lots of Lebron and Wade fans, as well as Bulls fans), but also the game that followed it had a team with a decent following here (Lakers)
