How many millions of people wish they could now go back and change their brackets? Chattanooga is already out and running. As of this post it’s 2-0 and they are headed to the free throw line. This game is over.

UPDATE: There is 18:49 left in the first half and UConn has yet to score.

Chris Drury (pictured) is as NHL-ready as one can be, and will be impossible to stop for the rest of the year. Mike Grier is a force and having a great season. And with DiPietro in net, we don’t see how Northeastern even scores a goal in the Beanpot final. Also, Tom Poti is looking more and more like a blue-chip NHL prospect, so they will need to account for him as well. Northeastern has no one to mark Chris O’Sullivan and when you consider the season Joe Sacco is having, well….the game is over before it starts.

So anyway, here are the current USA Today rankings:

1 Boston University
2 University of Notre Dame
3 Northeastern University
4 University of Michigan
5 Cornell University
6 Miami (Ohio) University
7 University of Vermont
8 University of Denver
9 University of Minnesota
10 Princeton University
11 University of New Hampshire
12 Boston College
13 University of North Dakota
14 Yale University
15 The Ohio State University

Parker was suspended for the first two games of the 2008 season when he was arrested last April on weapons and drugs charges. Preston sounds like an assload of fun to hang with.

Back in 2006, Parker was arrested for trying to steal DVD’s from Best Buy, but had the charges dropped after paying $200 in court costs and agreeing to enter a diversionary program. Whoever runs that diversionary program might want to re-think some of its strategy. I think now is a good chance to crack open the mission statement of the program and really think about tweaking it.

And just for reference, because I know a lot of you don’t watch college ice hockey, winning the HE Pure Hockey Defensive Player of the Week award is roughly as difficult as winning NBA MVP for a season. And winning it in a year in which Magic, Bird and Jordan all had career years.

Just to let you know, B.U. is currently No. 2 in the nation behind only Notre Dame, who B.U. is better than in many ways, including, but not limited to, book smarts, street smarts, ice hockey and sex with women. Lame schools like Northeastern, whose lesser academic standards have finally caught up with the hockey program, are only ranked #5. I guess that’s good for them, but certainly B.U. wouldn’t tolerate that low of a ranking.

Stay tuned. Because you know if it happens in college ice hockey (men’s or women’s), OTR will cover it.

He is expected to make the announcement tomorrow.

We don’t see anyway in hell that he slides past the Saints in the sixth round.

B.C. warned Jagodzinski that if he interviewed for the head coaching vacancy of the N.Y. Jets that they would fire him. Apparently, they weren’t kidding.

“Jeff and I were really divided on the future of this program,” said B.C.’s athletic director Gene DeFilippo. “I just thought I hired a coach that I thought was going to be here a long time and I thought Jeff was that guy. I am looking for someone who can give a commitment of at least four or five years, for the length of the contract.”

He said that there will be an interim coach assigned until he can find a long-term replacement.

We’d rather just shut it down than to run a boring, poorly updated blog, which is what OTR is starting to become.

We can’t thank all of our readers enough. You guys have all been great and we had a ton of fun playing with everyone. Maybe we’ll do it again some day. We could have just let the blog die slowly and not update it, but that’s not fair to anyone. We thought we would give OTR a proper burial by at least letting everyone know that we are calling it quits.

Memorial services will be held Sunday, December 21st at 2 PM at the Lodi, NJ YMCA.

You can send thoughts and regards to MPerry_77@hotmail.com and MicahW@feverpitchmedia.com.

Happy Holidays to all of those in OTR land!!

This means the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar Bowls, plus the BCS Championship Game, will be televised in prime…blah blah blah…who the F cares?

I read the article about five times and I still haven’t found the sentences that read, “starting in the 2009-10  college football season the NCAA will have a playoff system consisting of the top-eight ranked teams to determine the National Championship.  Four newly formed bowls have been named.  The Super Awesome Bowl will be featuring the number one and number eight ranked teams.  The It’s Finally Here Bowl will be featuring the number two and number seven ranked teams in the nation.  The There Will Finally Be No Arguments About Who Is Number One Bowl will play the number three ranked team against the number six ranked team.  And finally, the If You Oppose This Playoff Format You Are An Idiot Bowl will host the number four and number five ranked teams.

PHOTO CAPTION:  The Super Awesome Bowl would be played at Lambeau Field.

Don’t give me the argument that the number nine team is left out of this tournament.  Nobody cares about Boise State.

After round one we have four teams left, which leaves us three more games that can be played in the Fiesta Bowl, the Orange Bowl, and the Sugar Bowl.   These three bowls will alternate every year in hosting the National Championship game.  It’s that easy.

I’m sorry I left out the Rose Bowl, but Vince Young and Matt Leinart’s performances in the NFL have completely ruined my perception of the 2006 game in Pasadena.

This new playoff system would be the best tournament in sports and would trump March Madness.

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Stay tuned on this one. The only real loser here could be USC’s basketball program. Mayo didn’t break any law if he did accept gifts.

PHOTO CAPTION: ‘barry’ was kind enough to forward his school picture from this year.

I spoke to ‘barry’ last night to let him know he was receiving this award and I asked him to tell us a little bit about himself that the readers might not know. Before I could even get out the question ‘barry’ yelled out, “Tomorrow is Monopoly night. Baltic Ave is my favorite.”

With a little snicker I responded, “That’s great, ‘barry,’ that’s great. Tell us more?”

The conversation continued for about ten minutes before he had to finish up his life-sized Simon Birch sculpture for his LEGO contest this weekend. But let me highlight some interesting facts ‘barry’ wanted to share with OTR and you, the readers. His favorite sports team is the Charlotte Sting. He loves the WNBA, because he doesn’t feel dunking should be legal. “It’s too violent,” he said. ‘barry’s’ favorite color is dark orange. And he has a pet turtle named after his favorite person of all-time, ‘Skippy’ from Family Ties, who was played by Marc Price.

Before we ended our conversation I asked ‘barry’ what his favorite comment (or as he likes to say, ‘coment’) was on OTR’s site. He singled out this quote under a Chad Johnson article:

“no coment micah? hummmmm why? because the jimmey rollins”

“Because the jimmey rollins,” I don’t think Micah or myself could have summed it up better. Again, we salute you ‘barry’ as OTR’s Fan Of The Year. Don’t stop commenting. Continue your schooling to get that grammar perfected. And tell your friends that OTR did an article all about you, buddy. You are the best.

OTR Note: ‘barry’ is now commenting as ‘mark.’ I guess he doesn’t realize we can see his posts are coming from the same computer. You will soon see ‘mark’s’ aka ‘barry’s’ comments (same grammatical errors). They are currently in moderation.

“Discoveries in genetics, physiology and nanotechnology are creating new challenges to definitions of cheating. Sports executives including Atlanta Falcons President Rich McKay and former World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound say a reconsideration of what’s fair may lead to more-invasive testing, rules designed for emerging technologies and even legalizing banned substances if they become so commonplace they confer no advantage.”

End excerpt.

Former World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound? Are you kidding me? Dick Pound? I need to do more research. His full name is Richard William Duncan Pound. This is even more funny. Let’s say he uses his middle name as Will. Dick Will Pound? Honestly, how do you name your child Dick Pound? I apologize if there are any Dick Pounds that read this blog.

PHOTO CAPTION: Dick Pound shows that he measures up to the competition.

Alright, enough…read the article, it’s pretty good. And while you are on that site, check where the 10 year treasury is at to see if mortgage rates will go up or down tomorrow.

�Brady Smith was issued a summary suspension from the university as a result of an alleged assault last evening or early this morning,� said BC spokesman Jack Dunn. �The university has a right to issue summary suspension for incidents that are deemed to be of a serious nature. That suspension remains in effect pending the outcome of court proceedings.�

While you all know we love piling on athletes and celebs that royally screw up, we’re going to hold off on this one. Too many people raced to conclusions in the Duke lacrosse case and that’s a scary thing. Football players, especially those at high-profile programs, can be targets of false allegations and we think that anyone who falsely accuses anyone of something like rape, should be tried, convicted and sentenced to whatever their local rape charges are themselves.

Then again, there is also the possibility that he did it, which makes him a soulless scumbag. For those of you hoping for us to rip this guy a new one, we apologize. We’re going to sit tight on that until we hear more.

PHOTO CAPTION (rivals.com): During high school, Michael Beasley glued his upper-right lip in a way that makes him look extra tough.

I know everyone turns to OTR for interesting facts, so let’s uncover some information about Beasley:

Before the season started, Beasley had this quote, “We’re going to beat Kansas at home. We’re going to beat them in their house. We’re going to beat them in Africa. Wherever we play, we’re going to beat them.” He backed that up by dropping a game high 25 points on the Jayhawks in an 84-75 victory in their first meeting of the season.

Most likely, he will be the first overall pick in this year’s NBA draft. That’s all I got. Apparently, this guy doesn’t possess marijuana or drive drunk…………..yet.

Mayo had a very successful and productive year for the Trojans averaging 20+ points and over four rebounds per game. However, they did lose to Michael Beasley’s Kansas State Wildcats in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Mayo is projected to be a high lottery pick and has the size to play in the NBA with his six foot five, 210 pound frame.

Here are some interseting topics about Mayo and his past:
A Star Player, A Video, and a Suspension: In January 2007, Mayo allegedly assaulted referee Mike Lazo after being ejected from a Huntington High game vs. Capital High School at the Charleston Civic Center.

According to Wikipedia, “On March 9, 2007, Mayo and three other men were cited by the Cabell County Sheriff’s Dept. for misdemeanor simple possession of marijuana. Officers found the cannabis in a car in which Mayo was a passenger and, since no one claimed possession, all occupants were ticketed. Charges against Mayo were dropped on March 12, 2007 after one of the other passengers in the vehicle took responsibility for the marijuana.”

Don’t worry about those things though, I just felt like throwing him under the bus for screwing up my bracket. These are stupid little things teenagers go through. He’ll be an absolute stud in the NBA and could kick my ass if he wanted to.

This is absolutely huge news if you care. OTR doesn’t care. We don’t even know what state Kansas is in?

Unidentified sources have also informed OTR that if Courtney Love marries Kevin Love there would be no need for name changes unless Courtney would want to go by Courtney Love-Love. Furthermore, if Courtney Love-Love then divorced Kevin and married Lyle Lovett her name would be Courtney Love-Love-Lovett. OTR thinks this is very interesting. Thank you unidentified sources for that info.

Seriously, email us.

The Memphis Tigers were led again by their two All-American guards, freshmen Derek Rose and junior Chris Douglas-Roberts who combined for 53 of the 78 Memphis points. These two players who are destined for NBA stardom are that much better than any other guard tandem in college basketball and are a serious match up problem for any team they play. Of their 53 combined points 20 of them came from the charity stripe on 23 attempts. Rose went 11 for 12 and Douglas-Roberts went 9 for 11. Interestingly, the two players were the only Tigers to get to the line. Maybe this was Coach Calipari’s strategy for fixing their free throw woes (61% for the year); only allowing his two best free throw shooters to get there (Rose and Douglas-Roberts, 71%). Senior Joey Dorsey did not score any points, but made his contribution by bringing down 15 rebounds, six of them on the offensive side. Forward Shawn Taggart came off the bench for 22 minutes and scored seven points and grabbed seven boards.

UCLA led 12-11 four and half minutes into the game, but Derek Rose’s lay up put Memphis in the lead for good. UCLA kept it close during the first twenty minutes of the game going into halftime 38-35, but a 10-2 run to start the second half put Memphis up by 11 and UCLA couldn’t fight their way back. UCLA was led by sophomore guard Russell Westbrook who scored 22 points on 10 for 19 shooting. Freshman Kevin Love who most likely played his last game for UCLA finished with 12 points and nine rebounds. This was UCLA’s third straight final four appearance and the third straight time they finished empty handed.

The nightcap featured another future NBA star Brandon Rush and his Kansas Jayhawks. On 11 for 17 shooting, Rush dropped in 25 points including 12 in a 40 to 12 run to start the game. The lead looked too big for any team to come back from, especially with the way Kansas was out-everthinging (made up word?) UNC. But, with five minutes left in the first half, Tarheel junior Danny Green sparked a 15 to 4 run with eight points on his own to close the half at 44-27.

The comeback didn’t stop there. With UNC not slowing down any, they came out firing cutting the lead to 54-50. However, coming back from a deficit that big spends a lot of energy and the Tarheels couldn’t get any closer. Kansas finally regrouped and again took control of the game getting the lead back to 10 points, 71-61, with four and a half minutes left to play. Kansas guard Sherron Collins came off the bench with 11 points, four assists and four rebounds. AP Player of the Year Tyler Hansbrough finished with 17 points and nine rebounds. Wayne Ellington led all UNC players with 18.

Monday night’s game will feature two of the best guards in the country squaring off against each other with Kansas’ Brandon Rush and Memphis’ Chris Douglas-Roberts. Both are 6-6 and can play inside and outside. The winner of this battle could ultimately help lead their team to a national title.

We figured there would be no way he’d go to the library to study, so he had to find something else to do. How do you explain this one to mom and dad?

Photo Caption: Stanley Pringle’s sister

Editor’s Note: Michael Perry is a Penn St. alum.

Second Team:
Luke Harangody, Notre Dame
Roy Hibbert, Georgetown
Shane Foster, Vanderbilt
D.J. White, Indiana
Stephen Curry, Davidson

Third Team:
Chris Lofton, Tennessee
Darren Collison, UCLA
Brook Lopez, Stanford
Derek Rose, Memphis
Eric Gordon, Indiana

The Made Up Fourth Team:
Yasmine Bleeth, Los Angeles County
David Hasselhoff, Los Angeles County
Jeremy Jackson, Los Angeles County
Gena Lee Nolin, Los Angeles County
Pamela Anderson, Los Angles County