Missed eagerly awaited shows

A series of unforeseen, unexpected and unfortunate incidents led me to miss both the John Legend and Craig David concerts last week.

I'm sure it would've been a blast.

Tar Heels book their second straight Final Four

North Carolina absolutely demolished Michigan State last December to the tune of a 98-63 drubbing. The game was held at Detroit's Ford Field, the site of this year's Final Four.

UNC coach Roy Williams vowed to bring his team back to play at Detroit in April. With another convincing win in the NCAA tournament, he did just that. A promise fulfilled.

Perennial powerhouse and oddsmakers favorite North Carolina proved far too superior for the Oklahoma Sooners as they won comfortably, 72-60, in their Elite Eight matchup.

The Tar Heels led by as much as 21 in the second half before a late Oklahoma run made the score a little bit closer. But they were pretty much out of it as they failed to get within single digits the rest of the way.

Blake Griffin also showed why he was the best college basketball player this season with his 30th double-double, scoring 23 points and collecting 16 rebounds.

Reigning national player of the year and All-American senior Tyler Hansbrough was held to 8 points while ACC Player of the Year Ty Lawson led the Heels with 19 points and 5 assists.

Lawson was named most outstanding player of the South Region.

The Final Four is now set with Carolina facing Villanova and Connecticut taking on Michigan State in next weekend's national semifinals.

UNC reaches third straight Elite 8

South Regional top seed North Carolina used its potent uptempo offense to run out the Gonzaga Bulldogs, 98-77, in their Sweet Sixteen

ACC Player of the Year Ty Lawson led the Tar Heels' charge with 19 points and 9 assists with only 1 turnover. All-American senior and ACC leading scorer Tyler Hansbrough added a double-double performance with 24 points and 10 rebounds.

North Carolina will try to gun for an NCAA-leading 18th Final Four appearance when they face second seed Oklahoma tomorrow. The game will showcase what should be a great matchup between the last two national players of the year in Hansbrough (consensus 2008) and Blake Griffin (likely consensus 2009).

FB stat: F&F

I'm leaving it all up to faith and fate.

amdg

Solid and reliable

Come hell or high water, I know who'll always have my back.

Van Wilder was a movie and should not be taken seriously

It's never cool to overstay in school too long. There's just no excuse in taking too long to finish school.

My mom is home-wrecking again

I just found out my mom's doing Church annulment work for one of the pioneers of Philippine television. She made me swear not to divulge details about it though.

FB stat: Fed up

I'm so fed up with all these young'n antics.

On losing due to technicality

I was informed that the protest against one of my teammates was upheld. As a result, they forfeited our second semifinals win last March 15. meaning the team we beat that day (Baterina) moved on to the finals last Saturday, March 21. They subsequently, and not surprisingly, lost to Team O'Brien for the championship.

Bullshit. But it is what it is (or it was what it was). I say put an asterisk on their trophy.

UNC off to Sweet 16

North Carolina breezed past the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament with double-digit wins over Radford (101-58) and LSU (84-70).

The Tar Heels enjoyed another pro-UNC crowd having played both games at nearby Greensboro. They will travel to the FedEx Forum in Memphis to face Gonzaga in the Sweet Sixteen this weekend.

It will the the third straight year Carolina has reached the regional semifinals of the NCAA tournament. They lost to Georgetown in the Elite 8 in 2007 and Kansas in the Final Four last year.

Oops!

I had a little accident in Cebu last weekend. It's best that I keep my mouth shut on this one.

Free Daniel Smith!

With Suzette Nicolas (aka Nicole), alleged rape victim of US serviceman L/Cpl. Daniel Smith, recanting her prior allegation via a recent sworn affidavit, the truth has finally come out. The court should set the innocent man free immediately.

To Evalyn Ursua and everyone else who supported Nicole, it's about time y'all shut the fuck up. And please, do everyone especially the Americans a favor. Do not even dream of setting foot in the United States. I hope they deny all of you entry.

Stepladder-ing our way to the Finals

We won our second stepladder semifinals game last Sunday to reach the championship match next weekend. It was a tight affair throughout but we managed to pull ahead and win it in overtime.

I made the pivotal, game-changing play in OT with an and-one opportunity off a fastbreak. However, with my emotions running high, I screamed at my hapless defender with full rage and I was T'd up for taunting. Unfortunately, it was also my fifth personal foul so I had to leave the game. I fouled out for the second straight game after getting disqualified on Saturday's semifinal game as well. I was just retaliating on the same old guy after he showed up my teammate after a great defensive play. He, too, was given a technical foul after he was trying to be macho tried to go after me. We led 40-38 after my layup and we never let up until the final buzzer.

There's some drama and suspense involved though as I was notified of a protest filed against one my teammates. Apparently, this teammate of mine also played for another Batch Division team whereas ABL rules provide that only one Batch Division team is allowed per player.

Should the protest be upheld, that will mean we will have to forfeit the championship game on Saturday.

Louisville gets first number one ranking ever

Final AP Top 5

1. Louisville (Big East, 28-5) - rose from 5th
2. North Carolina (ACC, 28-4) - dropped from 1st
3. Memphis (C-USA, 31-3) - moved up from 4th
4. Pittsburgh (Big East, 28-4) - fell from 2nd
5. Connecticut (Big East, 27-4) - slid from 3rd

The NCAA Tournament starts next week with Louisville, UNC, Pitt and UConn as the four number one seeds.

I will kill you

I watched the film, "Taken" while I was in Cebu last week. It's exactly how I want action/thriller movies to be. Just straight-up, unadulterated and entertaining-but-sometimes-disturbing violence. No need for any mind-bending twists.

UNC leads the South Region

A semifinal loss to Florida State in the ACC Tournament may have cost North Carolina the overall number one seed in the NCAA Tournament but more importantly, they still secured the #1 spot in the South Region.

The Tar Heels will most likely have ACC Player of the Year Ty Lawson back after missing their two ACC Tournament games. They would probably have won the tourney had Lawson suited up but Coach Roy Williams said their top priority was getting his speedy All-American point guard ready for their run for the national championship.

Three Big East teams - Louisville (Midwest), Connecticut (West) and Pittsburgh (East) - round out the other regional top seeds with the Cardinals being the overall number one.

From the airport to the hardcourt

I took an early flight to Manila this morning so I can get back in time for my ABL semis game. Good thing our game was in Ateneo so I didn't have to rush or anything. Best thing was that we won despite missing a few key players. That set us up for another win-or-go-home game tomorrow afternoon at the Blue Eagle Gym.

My body's exhausted for not having enough sleep but I'm still so amped up. Hopefully, the game turns out in our favor and we manage to pull off a victory over the second seed. The winner goes on to the championship round next weekend.

UNC regains top spot

AP Top 5 (as of March 9, 2009)

1. North Carolina (ACC, 27-3) - moved up from 2nd
2. Pittsburgh (Big East, 28-3) - moved up from 3rd
3. Connecticut (Big East, 27-3) - dropped from 1st
4. Memphis (C-USA, 28-3) - moved up from 5th
5. Louisville (Big East, 25-5) - moved up from 6th

Final poll will be released next week.

Three years ago today

Today would've been my 3rd year anniversary with IBM. Tomorrow would've been the start of my fourth year with them. But all good things must come to an end and even better things happen.

UNC sweeps Duke, wins ACC

(2)North Carolina continued its recent dominance over cross-town rivals (7)Duke with a 79-71 win on Senior Day at the Smith Center. The Tar Heels (27-3, 13-3 ACC) clinched their second straight ACC regular season title, their 3rd in the last five years.

Seven seniors, led by All-American Tyler Hansbrough, played the last home games of their college careers. UNC coach Roy Williams honored his seniors by having all seven of them on the court prior to tipoff.

North Carolina will be the top seed in next week's ACC Tournament in Atlanta.

Five straight wins

We won our final elimination round game yesterday morning, 73-69, at the Reyes Gym in Mandaluyong. It was our fifth straight win after starting the season 0-2. We head into postseason play as the third seed with a 5-2 record.

I clinched the game by making 6 consecutive freethrows in the final minute. I had to buck off a poor start at the fifteen-foot line as I missed my first 7 freethrow attempts with most of them coming up short.

I finished the game with 13 points, 4 rebounds, 9 assists and 6 steals.

Another trip to my second home

Six of my ten recent flights have been on PAL. The only thing I don't like about flying with PAL is that they use NAIA Terminal 2 as their hub. I prefer the new and nearer Terminal 3 that Cebu Pacific utilizes.

I'm back to my jetsetting ways this week as I'm trotting to the Queen City of the South yet again. It'll be a short trip as I need to get back in time for my ABL semifinals game on Saturday morning.

I'm taking the second flight out of Cebu so I can make it to my 10:30am tipoff at the Blue Eagle Gym. Barring any unforeseen delays, I should make it with more than enough time to spare.

UNC guns for outright ACC title

Second-ranked North Carolina (26-3, 12-3 ACC) has already clinched at least a share of the ACC regular season title going into its season-ending game against Duke (25-5, 11-4 ACC) at Chapel Hill this weekend. A win on Senior Day will give the title to the Tar Heels while a loss will make Duke and UNC co-champions.

Senior scholarship players Tyler Hansbrough, Danny Green, Mike Copeland and Bobby Frasor as well as senior walk-ons JB Tanner, Jack Wooten and Patrick Moody will be playing the final home game of their college careers. What better way to send them off than with a victory over Duke and another regular season title.

ABL 2009: Semis-bound

Since I was out on consecutive weekends, I've missed out on my last 2 ABL games. I was hoping they'd win at least one so we can make a run for the postseason when I come back for the regular season-ender on March 7. I was delighted to find out they won both games by comfortable margins.

We're safely into the postseason with a 4-2 record. We're riding on a four-game winning streak after losing our first two. A win in our last game this Saturday means we clinch 3rd seed while a loss will drop us to 4th.

UConn back at #1

AP Top 5 (as of March 2, 2009)

1. Connecticut (Big East, 27-2) - moved up from 2nd
2. North Carolina (ACC, 25-3) - moved up from 4th
3. Pittsburgh (Big East, 26-3) - dropped from 1st
4. Oklahoma (Big 12, 26-3) - dropped from 3rd
5. Memphis (C-USA, 26-3) - remains unchanged

FB stat: Tired but ready to ball

I'm so exhausted and drained from continuous traveling but I'm hell bent on playing hoops tonight.

Back from being MIA

I was MIA for about two weeks. I just got back from consecutive trips from Singapore and Cebu and I didn't have the chance to blog while I was out. My recent itinerary was just way too hectic. Ten flights in 29 days is absolutely no joke. I was literally living on my trusted Delsey for about a month. I was so close to running out of clothes, most especially underwear. Lol.