Should Rivera have won the MVP

Last night at the All Star game, won by the AL 3-0, Mariano Rivera in his last year pitched a perfect 8th inning facing 3 batters and retiring all 3, and at the conclusion was named the games MVP, the first relief pitcher to ever win the MVP and the first pitcher to win the MVP in their home city since Pedro Martinez took it home in Boston in 1999.

So, now the question is did he deserve it?  I say for what he's accomplished in his career (638 saves, greatest relief pitcher in history) no doubt he deserved it.  Guys like Chris Sale who probably would have won the award if not for Rivera retiring (only AL pitcher to pitch more than 1 inning, got the win) will have plenty more opportunities in future All Star games.

NBA playoff preview

Tomorrow starts the NBA playoffs with 1 game on ABC beginning at 3:00 Eastern, and 3 straight on ESPN starting at 5:30 Eastern, and continues on Sunday with games on TNT at 1 Eastern, 7 Eastern and 9:30 Eastern and an ABC game at 3:30.

Eastern Conference:

Milwaukee Bucks (8 seed) @ Miami Heat (1 seed).  Season series: 3-1 Heat.  My prediction: Heat 4-0.
The Heat come in with an NBA best 66-16 record and have only lost twice since February 1 while the Bucks are going the opposite direction 4-12 since March 20.  In their last meeting April 9, the Heat played without Dwayne Wade and still pulled off a double digit win.  I will be surprised if the Bucks win a game.
Boston Celtics (7 seed) @ New York Knicks (2 seed).  Season series: 3-1 Knicks.  My prediction: Celtics 4-2.
The Knicks have won one playoff game in the last 11 years while the Celtics are used to winning playoff series.  This is the Celtics 6th straight playoff appearance and have made the Eastern Conference semifinals in 5 straight.  The Knicks are 4th in the league in 3 point field goal percentage while the Celtics are 4th in the league at defending the 3 ball.  The Knicks are a live by the 3, die by the 3 team, if their not falling they are in trouble.
Atlanta Hawks (6 seed) @ Indiana Pacers (3 seed).  Season series: Tied at 2-2.  My prediction: Pacers 4-1.
If you want to watch this series, don't miss Sunday's game on TNT at 1 Eastern.  The rest of this series seems destined for NBA TV.  The Pacers have lost 11 straight games in Atlanta, but having the first 2 games at home I think they can split games 3 & 4 in Georgia and wrap it up on their home court in game 5.
Chicago Bulls (5 seed) @ Brooklyn Nets (4 seed).  Season series: 3-1 Bulls.  My prediction: Bulls 4-3.
The Bulls are already without Derrick Rose and maybe without Joakim Noah as well, but all 4 games in this series were close.  3 of the 4 were decided by 4 points or less, and 2 were decided by 2 points or less.  I'm more confident in the Bulls winning an important game on the road seeing as they won at the Barclay's center earlier in the month and know they won't be intimidated by a game 7 on the road.

Western Conference:

Houston Rockets (8 seed) @ Oklahoma City Thunder (1 seed).  Season series: 2-1 Thunder.  My prediction: Thunder 4-1.
An intriguing first round matchup as an integral part of the Thunder's recent run of success was 6th man James Harden who couldn't come to an agreement on a contract extension and was traded to Houston days before the start of the regular season.  The Thunder have 2 wins in the regular season series by an average of 26 points.  Harden may lead the Thunder to victory in one of the 2 games in Houston, but this definitely isn't going past game 5.
Los Angeles Lakers (7 seed) @ San Antonio Spurs (2 seed).  Season series: 2-1 Spurs. my prediction: Spurs 4-2.
The Lakers went 7-1 in the month of April to not only get into the playoffs after opening the month in 9th but to get all the way up to #7 and avoid the best team in the Western Conference in the first round.  Now I still don't like them against the Spurs, but its a better matchup for them then the Thunder and just beat them on Sunday, albeit a Spurs team that was resting key players.  They'll make the series competitive, but will come up a bit short.
Golden state Warriors (6 seed) @ Denver Nuggets (3 seed).  Season series: 3-1 Nuggets.  My prediction: Nuggets 4-1.
The Nuggets set a franchise record with 57 wins, but at a price.  Late in the regular season they lost Danilo Gallinari for the season to a torn ACL and Kenneth Faried to an ankle injury, but he should be ready to play at some point in this series.  The Warriors are a better team then when they last met up in mid January, and you can never count out a team with a player that set the single season 3 point record, but the Nuggets are 38-3 in Denver this year so this is going to come down to how many games can Steph Curry lead the Warriors to in Oakland?  My guess is only 1.
Memphis Grizzlies (5 seed) @ Los Angeles Clippers (4 seed).  Season series: 3-1 Clippers.  My prediction: Grizzlies 4-3.
A great series and probably the most exciting one to watch.  They matched up last year in a thrilling 7 game series as well won by the Clippers on the road which included Memphis blowing a 27 point lead in game 1 of the series.  The Clippers like to get up and down the court while the Grizzlies are one of the leagues better defensive teams.  Dating back to game 6 of last year's series 5 of the last 6 games in this series have been won by the road team.  That, defensive wins championship, and Memphis wanting to reverse the roles on the Clippers this season (Grizzlies were the home team that lost game 7 last year) I got the Grizzlies in another thrilling 7 game series.

2013 NCAA tournament

The 2013 NCAA division 3 tournament starts on Friday, March 31 with women's first round games.  These are the list of conferences and the teams that have clinched the AQ from the conferences. How the 62 (64 women) teams are broken down as follows: 43 AQs teams that won their conference tournaments (42 AQs on the men's side) 1 team not in a conference (pool B team) and 20 at-large (pool C teams) (men's team has 19 at large selections).  The reason the women's field has 2 more teams then the men's field is because they're are about 45 more women's teams then men's teams.

Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference: Penn state-Behrend; La Roche
American Southwest Conference: Concordia (TX); Texas-Dallas
Capital Athletic Conference: St. Mary's (MD); Marymount (VA)
Centennial Conference: Dickinson; Gettysburg
CUNYAC: Staten Island; Baruch
College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin: North Central (IL); Carthage
Colonial States Athletic Conference: Cabrini; Cabrini
Commonwealth Coast Conference: Curry; University of New England
Empire 8: Ithaca; Ithaca
Great Northeast Athletic Conference: Albertus Magnus; Emmanuel
Great South Athletic Conference (women only): Huntington
Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference: Rose-Hulman; Hanover
Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: Dubuque; Simpson
Landmark: Catholic; Catholic
Liberty: Hobart; St. Lawrence
Little East: Rhode Island College; Southern Maine
MASCAC: Fitchburg state; Bridgewater state
Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association: Calvin; Hope
Middle Atlantic-Commonwealth: Alvernia; Lebanon Valley
Middle Atlantic-Freedom: Delaware Valley; FDU-Florham
Midwest: St. Norbert; Cornell
Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference: St. Thomas; St. Thomas
New England Collegiate Conference: Elms; Regis (MA)
NESCAC: Amherst; Amherst
NEWMAC: WPI; Babson
New Jersey Athletic Conference: Ramapo; Montclair state
North Atlantic: Husson; Colby-Sawyer
North Coast Athletic Conference: Ohio Wesleyan; DePauw
North Eastern Athletic Conference: Morrisville state; Lancaster Bible
Northern Athletics: Aurora; Wisconsin-Lutheran
Northwest: Whitworth; Whitworth
Ohio Athletic Conference: Marietta; Ohio Northern
Old Dominion Athletic Conference: Randolph-Macon; Guilford
Presidents: St. Vincent; Thomas More
SLIAC: Spalding; Westminster (MO)
Skyline: SUNY-Purchase; Farmingdale state
SCIAC: Redlands; Cal Lutheran
Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference: Trinity (TX); Trinity (TX)
SUNYAC: SUNY-Cortland; SUNY-New Paltz
UAA (regular season winner has no conference tournament): Wash U; Emory
Upper Midwest Athletic Conference: Northwestern (MN); St. Scholastica
USA South: Christopher Newport; Christopher Newport
WIAC: Wisconsin-Whitewater; Wisconsin-Stevens Point

Here's how I see the remaining 20 men's teams selected:
Pool B:
Going to Centre, the winner of the newly formed Southern Athletic Association, which doesn't have an AQ bid, so all 7 conference teams go into the pool B field.  Centre finished the season 21-5.

Pool C:
The way Pool C works is all 8 regions (Northeast, Atlantic, East, South, Great Lakes, Central (Midwest men), West & Middle Atlantic) each put up a representative, and they comittee members compare 8 teams to each other and pick the best.  Once a region gets a team selected, they pick another one until all 19 (20) spots are filled up.  With that said, here are my 19 Pool C teams:
Middlebury
Williams
Wisconsin-Stevens Point
Rochester
Virginia Wesleyan
Wooster
Illinois Wesleyan
SUNY-Plattsburgh
Hampden-Sydney
Mary Hardin Baylor
Wheaton (IL)
Wesley
MIT
Stevens Institute of Technology
SUNY-Old Westbury
Transylvania
Emory
Thomas More
Albright

Last 4 in:
Albright, Thomas More, Old Westbury, Transylvania
First 4 out:
Springfield, Rutgers-Newark, Brandeis, Augustana

Here's how I see the 21 women's teams taking shape:

Pool B:
Rhodes.  Was 24-3 in the SAA

Pool C (once again, not in order they'll be selected):
William Paterson
Mary Washington
Wisconsin-Whitewater
Wash U
Wisconsin-Oshkosh
Rochester
Calvin
Illinois Wesleyan
Messiah
Widener
Moravian
Tufts
Williams
Ferrum
Louisiana College
Maryville (TN)
Lewis & Clark
Smith
Scranton
Eastern Mennonite

Last 4 in:
Eastern Mennonite, Scranton, Maryville, Mary Washington
First 4 out:
Castleton state, Concordia-Moorhead, Vassar, Howard Payne

Max answers PTI questions

PTI is a show on ESPN usually involving Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon who debate the day's sports and entertainment headlines. I'll pretend the question's are aimed at me.

The first word:

1) More about Lakers or Celtics?
It just shows the Lakers just aren't that good this year, and will be interesting to watch the Lakers roster development in the summer.  They've been trying to get rid of Pau Gasol for the last 2 years, but no team wants him.  The trade for Dwight Howard looked good on paper, but he and Kobe Bryant can't coexist on the same team and has an opt out.  The hiring of Mike D'Antonio who succeeded the equally awful hiring of Mike Brown have really tied the team down this year.  The Celtics are 6-0 without Rajon Rondo, but have only beaten 2 teams with winning records.

2) Good or bad college season?
Indiana has a road game @ Ohio state Sunday anyways, but if Cody Zeller doesn't get totally lost on the inbounds Indiana may very well have won, but at the worst case went to overtime.  As it is, for the 5th week in a row there will be a new AP #1, and that's what makes it a great season!  There's no very great games, but there's about 8-12 good teams any of whom can win the championship which will make March great to watch

3) Any issue with Muhammad's reaction?
I didn't see this, but in a tie game with Washington, Shabazz Muhammed UCLA's top recruit wanted to take the game-winner which was taken and made by North Carolina transfer Larry Drew III.  He doesn't join the celebratory celebration and then in a post game statement says he was happy for him, but didn't want to join into the celebration, which sounds like a total cop out.  Watching the replay he was jumping around looking for the ball.  Go celebrate with your team, your going to be gone in 8 weeks.

4) Impressed with reporter's toughness?
The Rangers on-ice reporter gets hit by a flying puck.  He's bleeding out of his nose, has cuts under his eyes, and is still doing an interview when he's getting cleaned up.  That's toughness!  Doing an interview with a black eye and a bloody nose.

Psychic:

1) Will James White?
First of all: the dunk contest has gone down the toilet, I don't know of anyone in the last 3 dunk contest's including this years.  Second of all, James White is averaging a little more then 6 minutes a game and has 2 dunks this year, tell me why he's in the dunk contest??  Finally, there's only 3 or 4, so he's got a 25 or 33% chance of winning it, so why not take him??

2) Any chance Nuggets win West?
There a good team and play good defense.  However, the Thunder and Clippers (at full strength) are better overall teams and the Spurs probably beat them in a 7 game series, and they don't have a go-to-scorer to lean on in a close game.  I think they peak in the Western Conference semifinals.

3) How many wins for Hernandez?
He's go 98, is 27 and has played for 7 years.  I'll go about 190.  He's a great pitcher, plays in the AL West, probably the toughest division in baseball, and plays on a team (Seattle) that has a horrible offense, and has had one for the last 3 to 4 years.  If he pitches on about 20 other teams in baseball he's already at 100 wins.

4) Success without Bounties?
Gregg Williams was a good defense coordinator before bountygate, he'll be fine. 

Big Finish:

1) Brothers still haven't spoken?
I get mad at my sister when I lose to her in monopoly, I can't imagine losing a super bowl to my brother.

2) May coach Olympic team again?
Coach K has done great in the Olympics taking over from Larry Brown in 2004 who was a disaster, why wouldn't coach K come back, he's won 2 gold medals.

3) Not to blame for power outage?
Beyonce put on a great performance, but really??

4) Will losing streak end tonight?
The Magic have lost 11 straight and 22 of their last 24 games.  Cleveland, their opponent tonight, is another bad team, but I say it continues

5) Who ya got?
Clippers @ Heat.  I picked the Heat, since Chris Paul for the Clippers is still out, however Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh are questionable with the flu, so if both of them end up up I'll flip flop to the Clippers.  I'll go Miami 93-91