My Beaver Blog

Some free advice.

Call you insurance agent and ask about your liability coverage and an umbrella policy. Do it now! I was under-insured and unaware simply because at the time I took the policy I had nothing. Want to sue me? Go ahead, take my 10 year old car and student loans and be on your way. What I didn't know was that future earnings could be at risk. Kinda like liable alimony.

After a five year legal battle the issue has been resolved and thankfully there won't be significant financial impact to me. The better news is that I am now in a much better position regarding my insurance coverage and it actually cost me less than $100 a year to restructure and increase my liability coverage more than 10x (on my vehicles and home). I hope I never need it, but this could save me and you from serious financial distress should the unthinkable happen.

Wow, that was indeed probably the best four days of basketball I have seen. And as noted below I correctly picked 11 of the 12 games correctly. My final four is intact so well see how the Final Four pans out. UNC is still my pick (yes the fact that I would get free golf if they win has something to do with it).

Elite 8 thoughts:

• Who didn't know, especially after the way the other games had gone, that Patrick Sparks would hit a 3 for Kentucky to tie at the end of regulation given the free throw miss he had a minute earlier.
• The shooting display from UWV and L'ville was fun to watch, do those kids ever miss?
• Up 8 with 60 seconds to play, game over, right? Right? Arizona was better for 39 minutes, but all they get for that is a return trip to sunny Tucson.
• Pitino and Louisville are in, Tubby and Kentucky are out. That's gotta hurt the cat faithful.
• Whoever prefers the NBA over college is smokin' something. The teamwork, shooting skills, passion and desire displayed in college far outweighs the product offered by the NBA. If you think otherwise you need to be examined.
• I get worked up over these games and have little allegiance to any of these schools, we'll need to have the paddles on standby if my beloved Beavers can ever make a run in March.
• On the beaver front: why is the statement "back in the final four for the first time since 2000" said so dramatically. How about " in the final four for the first item in generations!". Almost as bad as the sad truth "there are 4 year olds in New York who have yet to see the Yankees win the world series", tragic indeed.
  

Counting down to tip-off on Saturday.

48 down 15 to go. This is unquestionably my favorite time of year. And by no coincidence my wife's least favorite. Here are my random takes on the tourney and college hoops in general;

• Salim Stoudamire is the best shooter in college period. And whoever is in second (My vote goes to T.J. Sorrentine of Vermont), it's not even close. All this JJ Reddick talk is just that, talk.
• Free throw shooting wins games
• Washington is better than people thought, and better than I want them to be. Let's hope L'ville can knock them off.
• Turnovers are a killer
• TiVo is the best invention ever!!
  
• Toughest region huh? Well now all that's left for UNC is Nova, then the NC State/Wisconsin winner. Looks like a done deal to me.
• The SEC wasn't that good (see Alabama, Florida, and Miss St. to a lesser degree)
• The Big 10 wasn't that bad (see Illinois, Mich St., Wisconsin)
• Bucknell's win was the biggest upset I can remember in the tournament. They only have 5 scholarship players on the team. First tourney win ever for the conference and it comes against a stroried program. It also killed the much anticipated UNC-Kansas duel.

Can't wait for Thursday. Here are my picks for the rest of the way.

Chicago
Ill. over UWM
Zona over OSU

Illinois over Zona

Albuquerque
L'ville over Wash
W. Va. over TTech

L'Ville over W. Va.

Syracuse
UNC over Nova
NC St. over Wisconsin

UNC over NC St.

Austin
Mich St over Duke
Kentucky over Utah

Mich St over Kentucky

FINAL FOUR
UNC over Mich St
Illinois over Louisville

UNC over Illinois