HOORAY!

In about 15 minutes, the Seton Hall Pirates (my alma mater) will take on Notre Dame in the 2nd round of the Big East Tournament in which has become essentially a elimination game. Winner moves on to the quarters of the Big East Tournament and solidifies their spot in the NCAA Tournament. Seton Hall defeated Notre Dame earlier in the year 90-87. The game is on ESPN. WATCH IT!

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No more tests.
No more teachers.
No more due dates.
No more  pop quizzes.
No more studying...

Until I go to graduate school.

That's right! 24 votes! Up from 6!

I'm not sure if any of you have noticed, but the Pirates of Seton Hall have received some votes in the latest college basketball rankings. At 7-0, coach Bobby Gonzalez has his team among the 15 remaining undefeated teams in the country. They've beaten traditional college basketball powerhouses such as St. Peter's, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Long Island University, and Cornell (Ivy League!). Expect much of the same when Jeremy Hazell and the gang take on the Virginia Military Institute this Saturday at the Prudential Center in Newark.

It's that time again. Finals. It's a time when teachers pile on projects, and tests, and papers, all in an effort to validate their existence. It's a time when students do more work in a week than they do the entire semester. Simply put, it sucks. I am in the last week of my spring semester and next week I have six finals. Six! Do you know how hard it is to study for six finals? It's like trying to multi-task for the first time in your life. Right now I am sitting on my basement floor with six different textbooks, reading a paragraph from one, then moving to the next one. Problem is, I am retaining none of it. Isn't my brain supposed to be a sponge, not Teflon? As I skim through these textbooks, furrowing my brow at terms I don't understand, I realize that I have not learned a thing this year. Not a stat, not a court case, not a ideology, not even a Snapple fact. And maybe that's my fault. But with the way professor's "teach" these days, I refuse to believe that. Every class I go to, professors are lecturing at you, not to you. Every class is equipped with a projection screen which was implemented in order to enhance the learning experience for the students. Professors use it as a crutch. Or they just don't know how to use it properly. It seems as if they attended only one workshop on how to utilize this new technology and stopped listening after they were shown how to use Powerpoint. Because that is all I stare at every day. Ill-conceived Powerpoint presentations with straight text and no graphics, videos, or audio. They might as well hand me the textbook at the beginning of the semester and say "See you at the final". I find myself jamming my brain with information hours before tests and then once the test is over, POOF, it's gone. That is because I can't absorb information when it's simply written on a page or a computer. It means nothing to me then. If these professors can't even get me to learn something by accident, why am I paying an arm and a leg to go to school? I'd honestly rather my tuition go to paying off the basketball players, because that way I would have a halfway decent team to root for as I hallucinate from studying too much. This would be made all the more easier if I was given a proper study guide to work with. All I am handed by my professors is a sheet of paper that lists every topic gone over during the course of the semester. That is not a study guide, that is a bogus substitute for saying "I'm too lazy to narrow down the more important topics so I decided to test you on everything". However, you really find out how lazy and incompetent professors are when you're given the exam. What is this? 50 multiple choice? 20 "True or False" questions? Fill in the blank? This isn't learning. It's flat-out retention. The most effort they put into the test is by writing True/False questions with double or triple negatives in an attempt to trick us. Quite the ruse! We sit there, not trying to decipher the statement, but trying to comprehend what sort of broken home our teacher grew up in that would make them give us this question. How about a question that requires some thought? Contrary to popular belief, I didn't go to college for just the "experience". Learning had something to do with it. That being said, I await the day when I graduate (December 2009), so I can struggle to find a job, a house, a wife, and wish I had the problems I do now.

Sorry for the rant.

The Netherlands knocks the Dominican Republic out of the WBC

Just a little F.Y.I right here: You should be watching the World Baseball Classic. If you are waiting for April 6th to get your baseball fix, you are waiting too long. The Classic is full of sound fundamentals, great pitching, clutch hitting, and most importantly, heart. These guys care more about playing for their country than they do their league team. Which is understandable. Half of the players of the D.R. team were in tears following their loss to the Dutch. Which brings me to my next point....The Dutch? The Dutch beat the Dominican Republic, who arguably produce more baseball talent than the United States. Their roster includes Johnny Cueto, Edinson Volquez, Hanley Ramirez, Jose Reyes, David Ortiz, Adrian Beltre, Miguel Tejada, and much more major league talent. While the Netherlands are essentially a make-shift team with the likes of Sidney Ponson (That's right), Randall Simon, Bryan Engelhardt, Dirk Van Klooster (almost sounds fake), and fifteen other players with a "Van" in their name. This was truly an upsets upset.

Seton Hall advances to play Syracuse tonight at 9pm on ESPN

In case you had better things to do last night, like anything, Seton Hall defeated South Florida 68-54 to advance to the second round of the Big East Tournament. They will be playing Syracuse at 9pm on ESPN. This is their first win in the tournament in the past five games. Quite an accomplishment! Sign Bobby Gonzalez to a thirty year deal, pronto! In all seriousness though, they do have a real chance against Syracuse tonight. If "The Hall" can get Syracuse's big men in foul trouble and guard the perimeter tight, this game will be very close. Do I expect that? Absolutely not. But I will watch nonetheless.

*I have this eerie thought in the back of my mind that Arod is one of those players who will never win a championship. With all his talents and skills, there is something about him that hinders his ability to be successful on a "team" level. Dan Marino had it. Terrell Owens has it. And I am pretty sure Rodriguez has it. I never verbalized this thought of because I don't want to admit it. If he does have this mysterious attribute, that means the Yankees will still be searching for their 27th World Championship nine years from now. And I don't think I can take that. As discussed in a previous post, I am spoiled as a Yankee fan. I am only 21 years old and have experienced four championships. I have evolved into a being that needs team success. Myself and every other young Yankee fan. So my only hope is that Arod does not possess the trait of the unsuccessful. The life of every pinstripe-loving twenty year old depends on it.

Economy, not drugs, bigger problem for MLB
This is largely a useless poll. Actually, all polls are useless. But I thought I would include it in my post because the poll was conducted by the school I currently attend: Seton Hall University. This isn't the first time ESPN has used a Seton Hall poll. During my first semester I took part in conducting one. Needless to say, it wasn't fun. Cold-calling people usually is so. I did get free food though. Which made up for getting hung up on for four hours.

USA defeats Canada 6-5 in WBC
I am not going to lie and say that I watched the game because I didn't, but it is still nice to see competitive baseball being played again. And by the way, shouldn't AMERICA dominate CANADA in baseball? The last time I checked, the game was invented in Hoboken, New Jersey (America's armpit). Why are we defeating "our attic" by the skin of our teeth? This may sound a tad ignorant, but don't Canadians just play hockey, drink Molson Ice, and listen to Rush? I didn't think the word "baseball" was in their vernacular.

Duke, North Carolina game at 4:00 ET
I used to be a Duke fan. I enjoyed the likes of Jay Williams, Carlos Boozer, Shane Battier, Shelden Williams, and Chris Duhon. But that was then. I think I stopped being a fan when Krzyzewski recruited Greg Paulus. A player who has no discernable basketball talent, was heavily recruited and inevitably given a scholarship to arguably the most successful college basketball program in the country. Watching him play basketball for the past four years makes me hate the game, and my life. But also, I can't stand the University of North Carolina. So at 4:00ET when I shift from one end of the couch to the other, and turn on CBS, I will be rooting for a highly competitive game. That, or Paulus and Hansbrough get in a slap fight.

By the way, it's not gay that I like this song, is it? It does feature Ludacris, which makes it acceptable for straight men to enjoy. And enjoy I will.