Early March Madness Tweets: Will UMass Get to the Next Round

There are 16 basketball games being played today in the NCAA Tournament, and there is much excitement about it here in the USA. So, let's get to some tweets that were posted between 11:00 p.m.-midnight last night. We have the comic strip "Dilbert" in the center because today is likely going to be the least productive day in offices from Portland, Maine, to Honolulu, Hawaii.

Here are the tweets:

1) Reed Avers: This Tennessee-Iowa game is everything MarchMadness is supposed to be (Tennessee won the game in overtime; they will next face U-Mass)

2) Travis O'Dell: "My mom thinks I'm sleeping, but she's crazy, it's March Madness"

3) Robbie Litchfield: "My top four teams are Florida, Mich St, Arizona and Louisville."

4) Hailey Morgan: Finally got all my brackets filled out.

5) Cam Marnouch: This game means nothing, both teams will beat UMass in the next round. BUT I AM SO STRESSED ABOUT IT.

6) Chris Bowie: Hey! Tomorrow is Irish People Go Back to Work Day! (Well, Notre Dame is not in the NCAA Tournament)

7) News-Observer (Raleigh, NC, newspaper): See 88 images from the practice by NC State in Orlando.

8) Carolina Basketball: The Tar Heels have landed in San Antonio.

9) VCU Ram Nation: Vegas odds for title....VCU No. 21

NOTE: The top image is of Florida Gators coach Billy Donovan; the team is the top-seed in the tournament.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament

http://www.dilbert.com

Top Ten Men's College Basketball Teams: Arizona is Numero Uno

Greetings to our blog readers in Finland, Italy and Japan.

Today, we actually have an image of another Wildcat De'Mon Brooks of Davidson University with this entry (both Davidson and the University of Arizona are nicknamed Wildcats), but our focus in on the Wildcats in Tucson, Ariz., as they are the number-one ranked team in the land. But, Davidson also had a major 93-82  victory on the road at UNC-Greensboro.

Before we get to the Top Ten, here are some conference players of the week in men's basketball:

ACC: Rasheed Sulaimon (Duke)

SEC: Marshall Henderson (Ole Miss)

Big 10: Nik Stauskos (Michigan)

Big 12: Naadir Thorpe (Kansas)

PAC 12: Delon Wright (Utah)

Big South: Rodney Glasgow (VMI) and Javante Green (Radford U, our alma mater)

Southern Conference: De'Mon Brooks (Davidson, pictured)

Now, here is the Top Ten, all times for the teams' next games are eastern):

1. Arizona (18-0) Hosts previously ranked Colorado  on Thurs. @ 9:00 p.m.

2. Syracuse (18-0) @ Miami on Sat. @ 1:00 p.m.

3. Michigan State (18-1; the team JUST won over Indiana 71-66)

4. Villanova (16-2) Lost to Creighton 96-68 on Monday

5. Wichita State (19-0) @ Illinois State on Wed. at 8:05 p.m.

6. Florida (15-2) @ Alabama on Thurs. at 7:00 p.m.

7. San Diego State (16-1) @ San Jose State 10:00 p.m.

8. Kansas (14-4) Won 78-68 over Baylor on Monday, will play @ TCU on Sat. @ 9:00 p.m.

9. Wisconsin (16-2) @ Minnesota Wed. at 9:00 p.m.

10. Iowa (15-3) @ Michigan, Wed. 7:00 p.m.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/


http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball

SIDEBAR: "The Sporting News" features a very amusing photo essay by contributor Ryan Fagan who saw four games in one day in North Carolina: Boston College @ UNC in Chapel Hill, North Carolina State @ Duke in Durham, Davidson @ UNCG in Greensboro (mentioned top) and The Citadel @ Elon in Elon; the home team Phoenix (yes, that is their nickname) won the game 75-66.

SIDEBAR #2: We also have a feature on the Top Ten teams in women's gymnastics; the Florida Gators, who are ranked third in that sport, is the only team that ranks in the top ten in both sports.

SPOILER ALERT: Florida Wins NCAA Women's Gymnastics Crown

The Florida Gators won the team's first-ever NCAA title in women's gymnastics; only four other schools (Alabama, Georgia, UCLA and Utah) had won and each of those schools is a multiple winner.

On our sister blog "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com we discussed how Florida performed as a team.

The two gymnasts pictured here are Gators' gymnasts Alaina Johnson (top) and Ashanee Dickerson (bottom). The meet will air on ESPN-U at 8:00 p.m. on ESPN-U.

Here we are going to post individual scores from the four different events; the meet was held on the campus of UCLA:


Vault

1. Bridget Sloan (Florida) 9.995

2. Alaina Johnson (Fla) 9.900

3. Marissa King (Fla) 9.900

4. Kytra Hunter (Fla) 9.900

5. Ashley Sledge (Alabama) 9.900

6. Olivia Courtney (UCLA) 9.900


Beam

1. Sloan 9.9950

2. King 9.925

3. Kim Jacob (Alabama) 9.950

4. Ashley Priess (Alabama) 9.950

5. Rebecca Clark (Oklahoma) 9.925

6. Madison Moorig (Oklahoma)9.925


Bars

1. Johnson 9.950

2. Vanessa Zamarripa (UCLA) 9.925

3. Sloan 9.900

4. Mackenzie Caquatto (Fla) 9.900

5. Jacob 9.900

6. Kaitlyn Clark (Alabama) 9.900

Floor

1. Hunter 9.975

2. Sloan 9.950

3. King 9.950

4. Bridgette Caquatto (Fla) 9.95

5. Jacob 9.950

6. Liominica Hall (LSU) 9.950

Friday Night Tweets: Sports, Sports, Sports...........well, mostly women's college gymnastics

Here are our sports-related tweets on a rainy Friday night which has been overshadowed by surreal, harrowing developments in the Boston Marathon bombing suspect. But, today was also the day of the first round of the NCAA women's gymnastics championships on the campus of UCLA; the home mat Bruins are in the second session, which is going on at this hour. These tweets are in reference to the first session.

The three teams that advanced are 1) Florida, 2) LSU and 3) Georgia. The other three teams were 4)Minnesota, 5) Illinois and 6) Stanford. Minnesota and Illinois were competing in their first NCAA championships.

Here are the tweets:

1. Ivana Hong @IvanaHong (She is a Stanford gymnast, pictured top): "Thank you everyone for such love and support! In the end, competing with this team is the best part of gymnastics."

2. Bridget Sloan Fans @TeamBridgetS (Bridget Sloan is an American Olympic gymnast who competes for Florida): "Yay! Congrat to the #gators on being in the #supersix! And congrats to @bridgetsloan on being the AA winner thus far!"

3. Jamie Christian @JamieAllOver: "So along with manhunt and other things about the terrorists, #supersix is trending. This is why I love America."

4. Between the Hedges @UGAHedgesBlog: "Congrats to the @UGAGymnastics for reaching the #supersix for the first time in 2009."

5. Kytra Hunter @KytraHunter Kytra Hunter is a Florida gymnast from Frederick, Md.): "Started out slow, but ended strong! Way to fight Gators! So excited for tomorrow!"

6. FSU Baseball @FSU_Baseball: "First pitch has been moved back to approximately 8:30 p.m. Stay tuned for more updates from Charlottesville."

7. Boston College @BostonCollege: "Thankful for a peaceful resolution; remember all affected by this week. #BostonStrong

NOTE: Neither Florida State nor Boston College have women's college gymnastics programs, but their tweets helped fill a gap we had!

UPDATE: Alabama, the two-time defending NCAA champion, won the second session with a 197.35; host UCLA and Oklahoma tied for second with a score of 197.200. The three schools that did not qualify for the Super Six are: 4) Michigan 196.85 5) Utah 196.200 and 6) Arkansas 196.150

Florida Gators Win SEC Gymnastics Meet

In a meet which featured at least three Olympic gymnasts: British national Marissa King (pictured bottom) and American Bridget Sloan (pictured top) of Florida and Canadian Brittany Rogers of Georgia, the Florida Gators prevailed at the SEC Conference Championships in North Little Rock, Ark., last weekend.

The Gators won its ninth SEC title and a second consecutive title as the team prepares to host regionals. Florida, also the nation's number one team, has had a history of disappointing and agonizingly close second place finishes at nationals, making them arguably the most successful women's gymnastics program to never win a NCAA title.

But, Sloan, who tied LSU gymnast Rheagan Courville for first-place in the all-around with a 39.725, helped the Gators edge out two-time defending national champion Alabama (197.8), LSU (197.7) and Georgia (197.325).

The Gators started off awkwardly on vault in the eight-team meet, but the team recouped thanks to strong scores from Sloan, King and Mackenzie Caquatto. The momentum continued as Sloan won balance beam with a 9.925.

The floor event in the last rotation sealed the victory for Florida with powerful routines from Sloan, Kytra Hunter, Randy Stageberg and Kierstan Wang.

Only four schools have ever won titles in NCAA women's gymnastics: Alabama, Georgia, UCLA and Utah though several teams besides Florida have come close, including Oklahoma, Nebraska and Michigan.

The Florida Gators mascots (pictured middle) are named Albert and Alberta.

Reptile Week Cont'd- The Alligator

Person One: Blogging is a complete waste of time

Person Two: Yeah, it's sooooooooo 2009

Person Three: But, I have a blog

Person One: Really

Person Two: What's it about?

Person Three: This week, it's about reptiles.

Person Three is myself.......

For anyone who is in southern Florida, the Everglades Alligator Farm in Homestead, Fla., has live alligator shows daily at 11:00 a.m, 2:00 p.m. and at 5:00 p.m.

We suspect that you will not get a discount if you mention that you read about them on this blog.

http://www.everglades.com

Of course, the school nickname at the University of Florida in Gainesville is the Florida Gators; we gather they are pretty good at football.

Silly Photo to Fill Space- Laundry Time

Yes, in case you were wondering that is Safir, a Turkish laundry detergent, which is undoubtedly used in every laundry place in Bakirkoy (forgive the ethnic humor; Bakirkoy is a large suburban section of Istanbul).

For those not in Bakirkoy, there is always Phoenix Laundry in Gainesville, Fla., which is open 24/7. I suppose those college students from Gator U have lots of dirty boxer shorts!

Silly Photo to Fill Space

We originally hoped to post a photo of some 'alligator sneakers' but we were blocked so we opted for this shot of an alligator feeding frenzy instead!

The reason for this blog entry is because the University of Florida Gators are one of the six teams that will advance to the Super Six Finals in NCAA women's gymnastics action this weekend in Lincoln, Neb.

The other five are Georgia, LSU, Arkansas, Alabama and Utah.

I incorrectly picked UCLA and Stanford to make it, but oh well!

Kudos to Elise Wheeler of Southern Utah University for advancing to uneven bar and beam finals.