And...we're off!!!

Most of the pundits will tell you that the biggest concentration of power these days lies in Washington, D.C., but in the college bastketball world, last night the local squads got a resounding No Confidence vote. While Maryland lost their last chance for a marquee ACC win, Georgetown was in NY falling to St. Johns, a loss uglier than Citigroup's stock price. For these two proud programs, their best hope, barring a miracle conference tournament win, is an NIT title and the old favorite, "We're #66!"

Meanwhile, as the title of this post, suggests, conference tournament play kicked off in the Ohio Valley, Big South and Horizon conferences last night and while there was little drama and no real surprises the field of contenders for the 2009 NCAA championship was trimmed to 293. It feels good to be slowly trimming the ranks of those teams still alive as we move inexorably towards the glory of Selection Sunday. Great times.

In like a lion...

Just when we were thinking of rejoicing about our emergence from the drudgery that is February, we were hit with a good old-fashioned winter storm and a 4%+ drop in the stock market on Monday. However, thanks to the sports calendar finally turning over, mini March Madness kicks off this week with conference tournaments firing up across the country, mainly in some of the great out of the way college basketball towns you've never heard of.

By my count, we start play tonight in the Ohio Valley conference with 309 Division I teams still alive in the race to cut down the nets in Detroit a month from now. Obviously, most of those dreams will die in the next week or so, but it doens't change the fact that even a team like 6-23 Mississippi Valley State is merely a 10-game winning street from having people pouring into the streets of Itta Bena.

It's agreat way to kick off arguably the great month or so of the sports calendar as we proceed from the conference tournaments to the Big Dance and on through to Opening Day and then the Masters. In the meanwhile, we'll roll the clocks ahead and spring will have sprung. Here's to warm days and hot shooters!

Uncle Sam's Bracketology

Here is the initial unveiling of Uncle Sam's predicted NCAA tourney bracket. Clearly, it's a fluid process, but I'll try to update my projections a couple of times a week. The Pitt/UConn game only prompted an exchange of #1 seeds with the Huskies now being on top of the West region. Currently, I've got 6 Big Ten teams in and no true mid-major conference with more than one team and those two things will most likely probably change come conference tournament time.


EAST SOUTH MIDWEST WEST
Boston Memphis Indianapolis Arizona
Philly Greensboro K.C. Philadelphia

1 Pitt UNC Oklahoma UConn
16 ASU/MSU Morgan St. CS-Northridge Radford
8 Dayton Texas Utah Florida St.
9 Davidson Kentucky Boston College S. Carolina

Miami Boise Portland Dayton
4 Duke Villanova Clemson Xavier
13 N'Eastern N. Iowa American Buffalo
5 Purdue Illinois UCLA Ohio State
12 Siena Penn St. UNLV Miami (FL)

Gr'nsboro Minneapolis Boise Portland
3 Wake ForestMichigan St. Kansas Washington
14 Vermont N. Dakota St. Weber St. UA-LR
6 LSU Arizona St. Gonzaga Syracuse
11 Utah St. Wisconsin Arizona San Diego St.

Miami Minneapolis Dayton K.C.
7 W. Virginia Butler Cal Tennessee
10 Virginia TechFlorida BYU Minnesota
2 Memphis Marquette Louisville Missouri
15 Jacksonville Cornell Robert Morris Texas A&M-CC

Last Four in
Penn St.
UNLV
Wisconsin
San Diego St.

Aaaaand...we're back!

Yes, folks, after quite a bit of popular demand, the blog formally known as the Bullring is back and better than ever. The new title is pulled from a song about my alma mater, William & Mary and really signifies nothing.

However, Hark Upon the Gale will strive to offer insight and opinion about the top stories of almost any subject, but will focus on politics and sports. Hope you enjoy and Welcome Back!