Rock-Choke-Jayhawk.
The old Pinto is lookin' pretty good these days ...
After telling everyone that Syracuse would win the NationalChampionship two weeks ago I received a lot of flak ... I even betmy booger-green Pinto that the Orangemen would capture the titleand I hate to say I told you so, but ...
If only people paid attention to their college sports columnist(hey, it could happen), then we could all be a little bit richertoday, $20 richer to be exact, (thanks Derrick) not that I amencouraging or admitting to gambling.
Unfortunately nobody would listen.
Forget about calling it two weeks in advance, just before thegame Dick Vitale said Kansas would win.
College basketball guru Andy Katz said Kansas would win.
Fellow NCAA buff Jay Bilas said Kansas would win.
Vitale-sidekick Digger Phelps said Kansas would win.
Way to step out on a limb guys.
In fact, out of the hundreds of thousands of brackets filled outon ESPN.com, only 2.4 percent picked Syracuse to win it all.
Although none of them, nor I, can hold a candle to Joe Lange ofFond du Luc, Wis.
Before the tournament Lange actually picked Syracuse overKansas.
Talk about your good picks.
Lange also correctly picked seven of the eight Elite Eight teamsand correctly guessed all Final Four participants.
Ironically Lange picked Memphis to win in the first round.
Picking Syracuse over Kansas shouldn't have been so hard todo.
Everyone knows that Roy Williams' teams choke incrunch-time.
Four different times he's made it to the Final Four in hiscoaching career and he's never been able to win it all.
Last year he had Kirk Hinrich, Nick Collison and Drew Gooden andhe couldn't even make it to the title game.
Vitale made such a big deal about how Kansas had turned a cornerby winning against tough teams like Arizona, Duke and Marquette andhow Roy Williams would be rock-chalk-Jayhawking down BourbonStreet.
But Vitale failed to see that it was actually Syracuse, notKansas, who had the toughest road to the title game.
The Orangemen went thru Texas and Oklahoma, both No. 1 seeds, bydouble-digits, as well as a tough Oklahoma State team. Syracuseowned the Big XII conference like a certain classic automobile.
Not to mention that the 'Cuse had the best player, not the bestfreshman, in the country in Carmelo Anthony, who averaged 26.5points in the Final Four.
Anthony finished the tournament in grand style with adouble-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Thanks to the super freshman, I still have ownership of myclassic car.
I've been thinking that my booger-green Pinto needs a new paintjob ... maybe I'll paint it orange.
With the Syracuse Orangemen's 81-78 victory Monday night overthe Kansas Jayhawks, this beauty is still safe at home.
courtesy photo
