NCAA Basketball Championship

Guards
-Shelvon Mack has played a crucial role in the Butler backcourt. The junior guard scored an average 21.8 PPG over the first five tournament games for the Bulldogs. But it's hard to side against the dynamic duo of Kemba Walker and Jeremy Lamb. Lamb has been an excellent compliment to one of college basketball's best players.

Advantage: UConn


Forwards
-UConn boasts a front line led by Alex Oriakhi, who is averaging 6.6 points and 9.6 rebounds per game in the tournament. Butler, however, is led by enthusiastic white guy Matt Howard. Howard led the team in regular season scoring, and is full of intangibles like basketball smartitude, hardworkabilility, and sticktoitiveness.

Advantage: Butler


Bench
-Both benches make solid contributions on the floor, with each team giving approximately 30% of minutes to the backups. Don't expect a bench guy to be an X-factor this time, however.

Advantage: Push


Coaching
-Calhoun has the championship experience, with two national titles already won. But I hear he's kind of a jerk. And Brad Stevens is on his way to becoming a basketball god, with back to back appearences in the championship at the helm of a midmajor. Youth wins.

Advantage: Butler


Kemba Walkers
-UConn 1, Butler 0


Advantage: UConn



It Would Really Suck To Lose 2 Years In A Row
-Like, really.

Advantage: Butler


Prediction
-Butler 72, UConn 69. By some divine miracle.

Opening Day 2011

Do you remember when the MLB held opening day in Japan?

...that was stupid.

This year, we've got a slate of six games. And they'll all be held in America.

As exciting as opening day is - and it sure is exciting - there's still one huge knock on baseball. It's the classic MLB problem: so many teams are already out of the running, and no one's even thrown a pitch. That said, here are the Sports Casual MLB predictions:

American League
East: Boston Red Sox
Central: Minnesota Twins
West: Texas Rangers
Wild Card: New York Yankees

National League

East: Washington Nationals

Just Kidding: Philadelphia Phillies

Central: Cincinnati Reds

West: San Francisco Giants

Wild Card: Atlanta Braves

Wow! Those are some bold picks. But seriously. I'll take the Kansas City Royals over the New York Mets in the world series. And by that I mean the Boston Red Sox over the Philadelphia Phillies. 

Can we just play for a couple months and then skip right to the playoffs?

Bill Self, Leonard Hamilton, Matt Painter, John Thompson III, & Kevin O'Neill Confess: "We Had VCU In Our Office Pools"

Maybe Jay Bilas was right after all.

In the latest NCAA scandal, the basketball coaches of Kansas, Florida St., Purdue, Georgetown, and USC are all under investigation for their actions during recent tournament games. Apparently, each one of these coaches had picked VCU to be in the Final Four in their high-roller office pools.

The buy-ins for these pools are rumored to be between $25,000 and $50,000, with the winners taking home over seven figures. Each coach is currently near the top of the leaderboard. Though it is unclear how, Tim Donaghy is almost certainly involved with this scandal.

We caught up with Kansas coach Bill Self to discuss these accusations.

"Sure," Self said. "I picked VCU to be in the national championship. I figured we'd lose to a 'Northern Iowa' before we had to play them. But I wasn't about to take any chances in that pool. That's why I told my guys to play as soft as they could and constantly heave up horrendous shots."

These actions, though reprehensible, sure do explain a lot. Bracketeers across the nation have been scratching their heads in disbelief, trying to figure out how a team could go from First Four to Final Four despite strong but not outstanding talent. This could be the answer we've been looking for.

The NCAA has recently released this statement: "We've already launched an investigation. It will probably drag on for way too long. Admittedly, we don't actually punish coaches, so we'll likely just put them on probation, whatever that means."

The Greatest Video Ever?

Today, a video. Tomorrow, a real post. Gotta ease back into things. (Thanks to Mr. Joe for the video.)

Great Moments in History with Gus Johnson from Gus Johnson

Break Time

Sports Casual is going on a brief hiatus. It could have something to do with 2 midterms, 2 projects, and a paper. Enjoy March Madness; we'll be back soon!