The Madness Experience
While the opening weekend of the NCAA鈥檚 March Madness tournament was nothing short of maddening, the games in Pittsburgh went as expected.
Fortunately, I was able to cover for www.bludevilnation.net, and it was a really fun experience.
As a Blue Devil fan since I was a kid, I was excited when I found out Duke was coming to Pittsburgh.
A few minutes after the brackets were released, I received a text message from my good friend Annie Malkowiak saying to contact Mark Watson, the owner ofwww.bluedevilnation.net.
By Monday afternoon, Mark and I worked out the arrangement for me to cover the Duke games, and I am thankful for the opportunity.
While I ended up not doing any game stories, I focused on postgame video interviews for both Duke wins and the videos are available on the BDN web site or through my new public YouTube account at https://goo.gl/KKpoRU.
As far as the games, the two best team鈥檚 heading into tonight鈥檚 Sweet 16 games are Villanova and Duke, and seeing a high level of basketball last weekend was refreshing.
That isn鈥檛 to say that both will make it to San Antonio for the Final Four as 鈥楴ova has to face a tough West Virginia team and, if it wins, either Texas Tech or Purdue, while Duke will have to get by Syracuse and either Kansas or Clemson.
Seeing the 鈥楴ova faithful travel across the state and the strong Duke contingent showed how lucky Pittsburgh fans were to get two of the top programs in the country.
And if both pick up two more wins, considering how weak the 鈥渓eft鈥� side of the bracket is on paper, the national semifinal game between them on Saturday, March 31, might just be the de facto national championship game.
One of the coolest happenings of the weekend was hearing legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski talk about his mom being born in Keisterville, which is near Uniontown.
The thing that stood out the most to me about the six Duke players I interviewed was how humble and respectful they were.
Yes, I have been a Duke fan since I was little and will be for life, but covering the team in the NCAA tournament is a professional career highlight for me and it is an experience that I won鈥檛 forget.
My favorite thing that I witnessed happened Saturday right after Villanova defeated Alabama while standing in the tunnel heading to the court.
As Alabama star freshman Collin Sexton was walking off the court, a kid asked him for one of his shoes.
Sexton obliged, took one off and handed it to the kid before throwing his other shoe to another teenager nearby.
The throw was caught by photographer Ed Thompson and the picture has been making its rounds on social media.
All in all, it was a perfect basketball weekend for this hoop fan, and hopefully this coming weekend provides us all with even more madness!
Penn State鈥檚 dynasty
While it hasn鈥檛 garnered the attention of most of the national media, over the weekend Penn State won its seventh NCAA wrestling championship in eight years.
The run has been staggering, and it has been even more impressive than Alabama鈥檚 college football national championship run with five titles in the last nine years.
The Nittany Lions lose several wrestlers from this year鈥檚 team, and it will be interesting to see if they can once again claim the team title when it is held in Pittsburgh next March.
If collegiate wrestling had a bigger national following, Penn State鈥檚 domination would be national news.
Zimcosky transferring
Geibel Catholic graduate Emily Zimcosky announced on Friday night that she was transferring from Ohio University to Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.
The move came about when Ohio University swimming coach Rachel Baugh was told that she would not have her contract extended for next season.
鈥淐oach Rachel was instrumental in recruiting me and coaching me my first two years, and with her departure, I felt it was in my best interest to make a change,鈥� the Smock native said. 鈥淚 am very excited to be joining (Liberty swimming) Coach Jake Shellenberger and the Flames鈥� women鈥檚 swimming and diving program.
鈥淚 love the atmosphere of the team and the university, and after considerable thought and prayer, this is the best step for me.鈥�
Liberty had shown Zimcosky some interest while she was in high school.
鈥淚 received some letters of interest the first time around,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his time, I was able to select the schools I wanted to reach out to first and after looking at their programs and visiting their campus, I fell in love.鈥�
Zimcosky spoke positively of her two years at Ohio University.
鈥淚 want to thank Ohio University, Coach Rachel and my former Bobcat teammates for two enjoyable years,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 wish nothing but the best for the Bobcat swimmers and divers.鈥�
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