March Madness & the Big (L)East

This has been one of the most exciting NCAA Tournaments I can remember in the past few years. Even though my Terps aren't in it, I've enjoyed watching the tournament tremendously. There have been so many close games and last-second shots to win games. The best part, however, is all of the higher seeds making it to the Sweet Sixteen. There are five teams that are 8 seeds or higher that have advanced. Pretty cool to see.

One of the bigger story lines in this tournament is the underwhelming performance of the Big East... or should I say Least? Having a record setting eleven teams in the tournament and being known as by far the best conference in all of college basketball, it's a bit ironic to see only two of the original eleven teams in the Sweet Sixteen. Think about this for a minute, the city of Richmond has just as many teams (VCU & Richmond) in the Sweet Sixteen as does the Big East. Four conferences have just as many teams or more in the Sweet Sixteen as does the Big East: the Big Ten, SEC, Mountain West, and the ACC, which leads all conferences with three teams in the Sweet Sixteen.

For as much credit as the Big East got this season, they sure haven't proven much in the big dance. Let's look at the records of the conferences in the tournament.

• ACC 7-1
• Big Ten 7-5
• SEC 4-3
• Pac-10 4-3
• Big East 9-9
• Big 12 4-4
• Mountain West 4-1
• The Colonial 4-2
• Atlantic-10 3-2

Clearly, the ACC has been the best conference thus far in the tournament. It is especially amusing to see after all of the criticism they got for being very weak this season.

I'm looking forward to a stellar second weekend of the tournament and I hope you all are too!

New HTC Thunderbolt

Looks as though the new HTC Thunderbolt is living up to the hype. I just watched a few hands-on videos on the phone and it looks impressive. I'm fairly familiar with the phone as I have an HTC Evo, which the Thunderbolt is somewhat based off of.

Overall, I like the phone. It's definitely more refined than my Evo is. The specs are pretty damn good too. Many people complained about the Evo's 4.3" screen, but I have yet to hear anyone complaining about the Thunderbolt's screen size. In my opinion, the screen size is perfect. Many people were probably not used to seeing a phone so large and were a bit intimidated by it. It's really not uncomfortable at that size and viewing videos on it is awesome. The camera is pretty sweet too. Having an 8mp camera and being able to record in 720p is impressive.

Of course, the coolest thing about this phone is the kickstand. These kickstands are really underrated. I can't count how many times I've used the kickstand on my Evo to watch videos on my phone or to show my friends a video. It is much more convenient than having to hold the phone up, especially on substantially long videos. I haven't really had a chance to see how the screen stacks up against other phones, but I'm sure it's no slouch.

With all things great, there are always things that could have been better. I have two main complaints about this phone. The first is that there is no apparent way to turn off LTE on Verizon, besides pulling out the LTE card behind the battery. I'm not sure how this affects battery life or the performance of the phone, but I can't think it helps it any. Secondly, the location of the charge port is just puzzling to me. The charge port is located on the side of the phone right where the phone rests with the kickstand being used. If you're watching a video with the kickstand, there is absolutely no way to charge the phone.

Other than those two gripes I have, the HTC Thunderbolt is a superb phone. With the screen size, hardware, kickstand and of course the HTC Sense UI, there aren't many smartphones that can compete head-to-head with this phone. If I didn't already have my HTC Evo on Sprint, I'd pick this phone up in a heartbeat.

Last Tosh.O show this week?

I have no idea if it's a joke or not, but Daniel Tosh's latest Tweet suggests what my title says.
A little disappointed if true, I thoroughly enjoyed watching Tosh.O.

danieltosh daniel tosh

yes the rumors are true. this weeks show will be the last one for awhile. need to figure out what i really want out of life.

2 hours ago via web

Being a Sports Fan is Rough

As evidenced in my blog description, it's quite obvious I'm a fan of the Maryland Terrapins, Baltimore Orioles and Washington Redskins. This past year has probably been one of the worst years I can remember as far as being a sports fan. After yesterdays debacle by the Terps, I've discovered that my teams are slowly ripping my heart out; or maybe I just care too much.

I knew coming into this season the Terps would probably not have that great of year as compared to last year after losing three big starters in Vasquez, Hayes and Milbourne. However, I didn't see them being this bad. With Jordan Williams returning and some veteran experience in Tucker, Bowie, Mosley and Gregory I figured they'd do alright. Perhaps I'm too optimistic and have unrealistic expectations sometimes, but it seems a bit unacceptable for a team with such a rich basketball history to be going to their fourth NIT in seven years (assuming they don't win the ACCT).

Everyone knows about the catastrophe that was the Redskins last year. With still so many question marks at so many positions, I'm going to be shying away from my optimistic views for the Skins. Hell, we might not even have a season this year which might actually add some years to my life as I won't be getting so frustrated watching the Redskins play.

I don't know if I should even get started with the Orioles haha. I guess I won't dwell too much on their past though. This season has my hopes up. With a much improved lineup I don't have any worries about them putting runs on the board. However, the most important aspect to their team, pitching, has me a bit tamed as far as my excitement for this coming season goes. As long as the young arms can hold their own, then this may be the first season in fourteen years where the O's will finish above .500. I know one thing, I sure could use a good season from the O's.