This March Madness episode has something different to it, as all four No. 1 seeds have made it to the Final Four rounds.

The Matches:

UCLA vs. Memphis

Kevin Love is the man that has leaded UCLA for quite a while, even though the Bruins weren’t really impressive during the season, they showed what they’re made of when they took down Xavier, while Memphis, considered by many experts as the main number one seed to lose, Chris Douglas-Roberts, who’s been averaging 17 points per game took the lead of the Tigers and have made it to the four in an impressive way by defeating Texas 85-67.

This is UCLA’s third straight season to make it to the Final Four, while Memphis has just made it 3 times in their team’s history, so the balance is weighted a little bit on the Bruins side, but in hoops anything can happen.

North Carolina vs. Kansas

Everybody expected the Tar Heels to made it to the four, mainly because they were classified as the number one among the number one seeds, they have being playing outstandingly, scoring more than 100 points for two matches in a row and with guys like Center Tyler Hansbrough averaging 21 points per game, the task will be hard for Kansas, who beat Davidson, a team that came from the deeps of the ground to be crowned as the revelation of the season, but the JayHawks defense has being more than amazing, and let’s not forget that they are being leaded by Brandon Rush, who would have left for the NBA but a knee injury preventing him from making it to the big leagues and now he’s the main reason for Kansas fans to be chanting their victory.

The Nuggets are still struggling to clinch a playoff spot, the 8^th to be precise, but they are still half game behind the Warriors, and one one behind the Mavs, who are going for the 7^th and to whom they beat yesterday 118-105 playing at home.

This meant the Nuggets fourth win in a row and the Mavs fourth defeat in 5 games, much in part because Dirk Nowitzki has been sidelined due to knee and ankle injuries, and Jason Kidd, who had 19 points and 15 rebounds, has stepped up as the leader of the team, but it just hasn’t been enough.

While for the Nuggets, Carmelo Anthony finished with 32 points and Allen Iverson with 31, and the game marked the return of Brazilian forward Nene, who was sidelined due to his struggling with cancer. Team mates gave him an ovation when he entered the court with 1:17 to play in the fourth.

"It's not about how he plays, we're just happy he's back and we're going to celebrate his health, we're going to celebrate his coming off of major cancer surgery, and we're just going to celebrate. This has nothing to do with basketball. We're just happy he's with us.'' Said Nuggets coach George Karl, another cancer survivor.

Overall a great night for the Nuggets who hasn’t lost their hopes of making it to the playoffs and why not, try to get the championship.

Nobody can or will deny that the Hornets are on a roll, they beat the Pacers a couple of days ago and yesterday they had their 5^th consecutive victory over the Cavs, one of the top Eastern conference teams.

Cleveland was leading by one at 99-98 with 7 seconds on the clock, but the All Star duo from New Orleans conformed by Chris Paul and David West, teamed up to scored the final two points that left things at 100-99 and the victory for the Hornets.

Also for New Orleans, Peja Stojakovic had 25 points, West added 20 and Paul 15, while for the Cavs, Zydrunas Ilgauskas step up with a season high 29 points while King Lebron had 21 and Anderson Varejao finished with 15.

All in all, the Cavs will still make it to the playoffs, but they will not obtain the postseason spot they were spectating, they are currently 4^th in the East behind The Celtics, Pistons and Magic respectively, this in behalf of losing five or their last 8 games.

But Lebron James is certainly not getting all the help he needs, and in order to be competitive against the big guys at the West, The Cavaliers needs to get back Daniel Gibson, who has missed the last 18 games due to a sprained ankle and “Big Ben” Wallace who hasn’t played for 2 straight games due to back problems.

While for the Hornets, they have it easy as they are at the top of the West with the Lakers, and so they are sure to secure a privileged spot at the playoffs.

The Cowboys have had good experiences when it comes to bring troubled players from other teams, let’s go back in the 90’s and bring back the memories of Charles Haley, who came from the 49ers, and most recently, the case of Terrell Owens who had alot of controversy around him when he was released by the Eagles, then he came to Dallas and became one of the most productive receivers over the past two seasons.

Now is the turn for almost-former Titans Adam Jones, who’s behaviour out of the field involving strippers and cocaine abuse was the reason why he is currently suspended from the NFL. He’s hoping NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to give him a second chance, which can come before training camp. April 10 will be Jones one-year suspension anniversary.

Recently Jones was at the Michael Irvin Show, and spoke about the consequences of his actions, including his arrival to a night club on January 3^rd in rebellion to Goodell’s ruling.

"It was a bad decision — one of the dumbest decisions I've ever made" He said.

Michael Irvin also had a troubled past involving out of the field bad behaviour and also including cocaine. "I think he's more comfortable knowing I've gone through some stuff" Irvin said before interviewing Jones, who didn’t gave any comments to the press before or after talking to Irvin.

Sunday the Lakers fell to the Warriors by four points, and yesterday, the table was served for Los Angeles to take on Golden State for the same difference, as the Warriors lost 123-119.

"I think both games, going down to the wire, they're good games," were the words of Baron Davis, who finished the game with 30 points for Golden State, while his team mate Stephen Jackson was pretty close with 29 and Al Harrington threw for 19, while for the Lakers, Kobe Bryant finished with 30 (23 of those in the second half), Lamar Odom had 23 and Sasha Vujacic scored 19 and saved Los Angeles in over time with a 3 pointer with 43 seconds left.

Kobe Bryant got his face cut up on the second half after a hit by Baron Davis, and had to get 5 post game stitches.

A curious fact is that both teams lost at home, an even harder task for the Warriors than for the Lakers, but revenged was served and so Kobe had something to say about it:

"We felt like we should've won the game last night, but Stephen (Jackson) made a couple of big shots, and tonight we made plays down the stretch," he mentions.

If both teams hang on their current positions at the West conference (the Lakers are first and the Warriors are eight), they will see each other again at the first round of the playoffs.

A few months ago the baseball world was focusing on Johan Santana and his huge contract, now all eyes are set on third baseman Miguel Cabrera, who just signed a large contract of 8 years with the Detroit Tigers.

Cabrera initially signed for just one season and $11.3 million, but the Tigers knew that letting him go was not an option, and even though they are signing him for $152.3 million, it’s almost a fact that he will be twice as expensive after the 2009 season.

The third baseman will be earning around $15 million on 2009 and after that season he’ll be getting a little less than $20 million and with this contract, Cabrera is positioning as the fourth best paid in MLB just after Alex Rodriguez ($27 million), Johan Santana ($22 million) and Manny Ramirez ($20 million).

Cabrera came to the Tigers from the Marlins in a deal that sent 6 prospects to Florida and sent Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to Detroit, where he averaged 32 home runs and 115 RBIs in a four year span, and during such time, the only players to match his numbers in the league were Albert Pujols and Vladimir Guerrero.

"What stands out to me is his personality around the clubhouse, everybody knows how good of a ballplayer he is, but he's also great around the clubhouse and is a good teammate." Said Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander.

The Celtics knew they had a hard task on their last road trip, they had to face the Texas triangle, and so they picked up some motivation and finished with a victory in front of each one of them.

First was their victory over the reigning champions, the Spurs, then they didn’t had too much time to rest as the following night they finished with the Rockets 22 winning game streak, and last night they had to come to Dallas and face the Mavs, to whom they beat 94-90. This is something worth to mention, as no other team had defeated the Texas triangle one by one since the Sacramento Kings did it back in the 2001 season.

"The only statement is we're done with Texas,". "We don't want to see Texas any more. It's a heck of a state, no taxes and I don't want to see any those three teams any more in the regular-season. They're just too tough. I'd rather move on." Celtics coach Doc Rivers said.

I guess the Celtics have nothing else to prove, except for winning the championship, and all thanks to a team effort that is very fond of the Irish squad right now, the big three, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett have gather very well together and it will be right to say that this is one of the teams in the finals.

There is no doubt, the Celtics are the official slayers of the big guys in the NBA, a couple of days ago they handed the Spurs their fourth loss in a row and yesterday, they finished with the Rockets outstanding winning mark of 22 games, the second longest in all of NBA history.

With 22 points from Kevin Garnett and 20 from Paul Pierce, the Celtics won 94-74, and outplayed Houston’s offensive with a real solid defense.

"It's a hell of a team over there. They outplayed us. I've never seen a defense like that. I mean, if they play defense like that, night in and night out, the NBA is in trouble because that was defense at its finest." Said Rockets All-Star Tracy McGrady, who had a rough night and got stopped every time he attempted to make it to the Celtics zone.

Maybe the Rockets have an impressive record, but they are still struggling with finding their way into the playoffs, and they still have one more record to protect, as they will visit the Hornets for their 13^th straight road win.

It will be disappointing to see the Rockets going down before the real playoff action starts, it will be like what the hated New England Patriots did on the NFL, they did great they whole season and fell to a small time rival at the end.

I guess the Spurs would have never thought that they will be 4 games down getting so close to the playoffs.

Their last consecutive loss came in the hands of the Celtics, who missed Ray Allen for his second game without action due to an injured ankle.

Boston rallied the current champs 93-91 with Rajon Rondo scoring 20 and Sam Cassell adding 17 for the Celtics, while for the Spurs, Manu Ginobili finished with 32.

This is the Celtics 2^nd victory on a 5 game road trip and now they are heading to Houston to face the almighty Rockets who’s inspired play has taking them on a 22 wins luck strike trip, and so far this might be the most expected game of the season before the playoffs, since the Celtics are considered the current best team in the NBA and Houston is on the run for the same title.

Would the Celts take on the Rockets? Hard to say, as both teams are coming inspired, and Houston is eager to end once and for all the negative comments about them and let people know that their strike of victories are not a matter of luck but consistency.

Definitely the Celtics are not the team from a year ago, the addition of all these well paid athletes gave an incredible boost to the team’s performance and just guessing again, I am hoping to see these guys at the finals.

Well, on one side we have Patriots fans chanting for Tom Brady and on the other, we have Colts fans, and most other NFL fans chanting for Payton Manning as the best in NFL history... What is the conclusion? Brady has had luck.

If we start by the numbers, we can say that when Payton Manning broke the record for most touchdowns, he said numbers didn’t mattered and so nobody praised him as much as Brady has being praised for broken Manning’s record.

Let’s consider this... before breaking this record, Brady hadn’t thrown for more than 30 touchdowns, so he surpassed his own mark by a big margin of 22 extra TD’s, while Manning did threw for more than 30 before coming up with the record.

I am not saying Tom Brady is a bad quarterback, I just think he is overrated, and has being given more importance for his actions than what is real worth it.

Manning and Brady are both future candidates for the NFL Hall Of Fame, and I don’t see why people keeps on with the comparison battle, but something I am sure of, is that when you really puts them together, Payton Manning has really a little bit more to offer than Brady, who has being lucky to have experienced receivers like Randy Moss.

With one quarterback winning the Superbowl two seasons ago, and the other one almost making history the last one, the run for the number one spot is on, and with Brett Favre out of the game, these are the true real contenders for the king’s seat.

Two of the main contenders for the NBA title fell to smaller rivals yesterday night; first the Hornets gave the Lakers a bad time and won 108-98 and the Celtics lost their run of 10^th victories in a row as they fell to the Jazz 110-92.

The Celtics played 3 quarters without Ray Allen as he left the court due to an ankle injury, while Deron Williams was the man who guided Utah with 32 points, following him was Carlos Boozer with 17.

If they had won this game, the Celtics could had being a step closer to clinch the Atlantic division and a top seed on the playoffs run, this is just proof that there are no invincible teams in the NBA, and smaller teams just need luck on their side from time to time to beat the Eastern monsters.

While on the Lakers, Pau Gasol had to leave before the final horn as he sprained his left ankle, which are really bad news for Los Angeles. On the game, Kobe Bryant had 36 points and Lamar Odom had 15. This is only the third loss for the Lakers in 17 games.

So the Celtics had a bitter St. Patricks day and the Hornets, leaded by Chris Paul’s 27 points gave the Lakers a lesson they won’t forget any time soon.

The Suns won their 3^rd in a row yesterday against the Warriors, a team that had 3 straight victories over Phoenix and had also 3 straight wins in a row before this defeat.

Many critics are saying that Shaquille O’Neal hasn’t being the great addition the Suns were preaching he would be, in fact, Phoenix has slow down their engines and are playing more defensively than ever.

I am not sure how good this is for a team with high expectations of making it pass the first round of playoffs, but efficiency is the key word, and Shaq has being efficient for the low minutes he’s getting, but he hasn’t being outstanding.

Amare Stoudemire leaded the Suns with 36 points, while Steve Nash finished with 21, Raja Bell 18 and Boris Diaw with 16, and for the Warriors, Baron Davis ended with 38, 2 points short of his season high, Monta Ellis added 23 and Mickael Pietrus had 16.

By the time of the third, the Suns had rallied the Warriors 91-79, and Baron Davis felt the urgency of playing with more consistency, and so thanks to him, things were much different with a few minutes for the fourth to end with things at 120-115, but it was just too late for Golden State, who weren’t allowed by the Suns defense to score more points and with 3 more by Phoenix, things ended 123-115.

Great game for both teams, but I think the Suns are doing much better with Shaq out of the court, as when the Diesel is on the field,you can notice how they pick up a slower rhythm, my guess is that the Shaq will keep on seeing little action entering the playoffs, we’ll see...

With Allen Iverson more or less injured, Kenyon Martin stepped up with 23 points, along with Linas Kleiza who had 19 and Carmelo Anthony’s 14 points and gave the victory to the Nuggets to the Grizzlies, who as of now have lost 16 of 17 road games.

Iverson had only 8 points, his lowest in the whole season, something that might be worrying for Denver, since the playoffs are around the corner, and they cannot give themselves any chances of losing a single game, and since this is the best start for the Nuggets (38-26) in 20 years, they cannot afford to play so well and miss the final rounds.

"We feel like if we win 50 games and not be able to make the playoffs, you'll have to tip your hat to the rest of the guys who got in, we're concentrating on one game at a time." Iverson said.

The Grizzlies didn’t had a bad start, leading by 12 on the first, but the glory didn’t lasted too long since the Nuggets rallied them the rest of the game and even came up with a 28 point advantage with 7 minutes left on the clock on the fourth putting the things 96-64 and finally giving Nuggets the 108-86 victory over Memphis.

The Nuggets have 2 more easy games at home against the Raptors and the Sonics, who just lost against the Celtics, and then will go in a 5 game road trip, starting with the almighty Pistons and finishing in Memphis, where the local team will try to get even.

The Rockets are the hottest team on the league right now... why? Well because after their win over the Nets on Monday they broke the record for the third longest span of victories on the NBA, and if they manage to win tonight against the Hawks who have lost 13 of their last 17 games, they will broke the record for the second longest run.

So it seems like an easy task for one of the contenders for the championship, who are playing with just one of their two biggest stars, Tracy McGrady, since Yao Ming has being out for 7 games and it’s expected to spend the rest of the season without seeing any action.

Even though they might get the second place, to make it for the first one will be no easy task, since there is a difference of 11 games, as the Lakers managed to obtained 33 victories in a row back in the 1971-72 season with Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West on their roster.

The Rockets suffered a big transformation after McGrady came back from an injury who left him out for 11 games, so the Rockets started playing considering that he might not even return anymore, well done, as other players started to perform better and gave the team a big boost, guys like Rafer Alston and Luis Scola got everybody’s eyes on them, and helped Houston to win 7 of the first nine of those 11 matches.

So when McGrady came back, a new team was born, everyone performing better than before and Tracy proving the people who doubted him that he still have alot to contribute after 11 seasons in the NBA.

The Rockets are doing great, but the real test is coming with the playoffs, where Mcgrady has being unable to help his team to make it to the finals, this time can be different for Houston, even without Yao.

Los Suns and Los Spurs, that is what you could read yesterday in the shirts of the two big basketball teams from the state of Texas.

It was supposedly in support of latinamerican players in the NBA, and maybe because both teams are native of areas with a big latino population, so it is comprehensible that they want to draw more Hispanic fans.

If you watched the game, you could saw how essential is a guy like Shaq in decisive moments like the playoffs, without any doubts, he was the man of the night, yesterday after he blocked two shots, he became the third player in the NBA to come up with 26,000 points, 11,500 rebounds and 2500 blocks, a mark that only him, Kareem-Abdul Jabbar and Hakeem Olajuwon have achieved.

Final score on the game was 94-87, with Grant Hill scoring 18, Shaq 14 and Amare Stoudemire 16 for “Los Suns”, while for “Los Spurs”, Manu Ginobili had 22, Tony Parker 21 and Tim Duncan finished with 17.

The Spurs were leading 85-80 with 5:12 to play in the fourth, but the Suns took a rally and pick up the advantage for good, the Spurs missed their last shots and Phoenix converted theirs.

This is the Spurs third loss in a row after a 11 game winning span, and its the 4^th victory for the Suns in 6 games since Shaq arrived.

I would not tell that the Suns are superior than the Spurs, actually the current NBA champions have great chances to go for their second, but they surely have more competition from Phoenix who were rallied by San Antonio in a series of matches at the same stage last year.

Are the SuperSonics moving to Oklahoma city, well team owner Clay Bennett is more than willing to do so, but there are some important members of the Seattle community who aren’t agree with his decision, and so they are looking to invest around $300 million initially to renovate Key Arena and keep the team on Washington ground.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive officer, who is worth $15 billion dollars and his partners, Jim Sinegal, Founder and chief executive officer of Costco Wholesale, Matt Griffin, Developer of Pacific Place, Wells Fargo Center and the WaMu Tower and John Stanton, entrepreneur and ex-McCaw Cellular executive and whom owned a 20 percent of the Sonics with the previous group of investors, are looking up to give the team a financial boost in order to prevent it from moving towns.

Though, if the Sonics move, they are still willing to invest on any other NBA team that might want to join Seattle, but they will surely prefer to keep the SuperSonics since there is a legacy of many years and they all share some affection for the team.

I would guess Bennett’s best move will be to allow the group to invest on the Sonics, since their finances are probably better than his and the arrival of better players could be an almost sure fact.

The arrival of another professional team to Seattle can be a low point for fans of the Sonics, and it will be hard for them to embrace another team that they probably used to booed in the past, will these fans remain loyal to their town or their team? Are the Sonics really moving at all? Well right now I would give it a 50-50 of chances for any of the two things to happen.

The NBA playoffs are around the corner and now we can more or less tell who’s staying and who the possible losers are.

East Conference:

Let’s start with Boston, the first time to clinch a playoff berth, now that they have Sam Cassell’s experience and the talent of Pierce, Allen and Garnett, they seem unstoppable, much different than the past two seasons when they couldn't make it pass the regular season, The Pistons are following Boston’s steps, even though they just fell to the Celts yesterday, the Eastern Conference leaders knows that Rasheed Wallace is ready to play at a championship level.

Of course you cannot forget about the Magic with Dwight Howard, and the Cavs with King Lebron who just recently hitted the 10,000 points mark, and became the youngest player to do so, he along with Ben Wallace can team up really well to give Cleveland better chances.

West Conference:

The Spurs are getting in shape and are starting to play at a higher level, while the Lakers with Kobe, who has saved Los Angeles the past two games, and Gasol, who is Phil Jackson’s new weapon, are ready to go all the way.

The Hornets are a great team, but their street-wise gaming and individualities can really affect them when facing more compact teams, The Rockets are proving that they can keep on winning games without Yao Ming, but I don’t give them much chances of making it after the first round, The Suns are getting used to Shaq and viceversa, but it is a fact that he will start scoring more points now that they playoffs are so close, and finally the Warriors, who are better than the Mavs, and of course Dallas is far superior than the teams below it on the table.

These are the teams that in sum, I think have the more chances to make it with the championship, if you ask me for any favorites, I think the real run in the East is between Boston and the Cavs, while on the West, the Spurs and the Lakers are my personal picks.

It will be odd to see the Packers entering the Lambeau Field without Brett Favre leading them, well it is something we might just have to get used to, as Favre announced his retirement to the surprise of teammates and fans alike.

Favre has being dealing with the possibility of retiring for a few years now, he always takes vacations after the end of each season in order to re-think his possibilities, and this time he said is final.

Fans aren’t really happy about it:

"I'm kind of disappointed. I thought he'd play one more year seeing that (the Packers) made it to the NFC championship game.” Said Joe Rutherford, a Manitowoc resident.

Favre is considered by many as the best quarterback ever, he has embraced every single award a well respected QB would like to have, he’s a 3 times MVP, hold a Super Bowl ring and six major NFL records.

His replacement, Aaron Rodgers, really have some big shoes to fill, he has being learning from Favre for the past 3 years, after being picked by the Packers in the first round draft of 2005, but it’s kind of worrying that there is not another quality QB after him, since Rodgers broke his foot in a game against the Patriots in 2006 and then suffered another injury during a practice in 2007, which basically ended his season.

So now the Packers are looking for a trusted and experienced quarterback that can be behind Rodgers.

I’m just guessing that it was kind of surprising the fact that Favre announced his retirement at such an advanced period, when signings are over and coming up with the services of a qualified QB is even harder.

Favre has stated that he still have what it takes to play one more season, even Coach Mike McCarthy supported him to come back for 2008, but the 38 year old veteran said that he is mentally tired and didn’t wanted to hold on the pressure of practices and keep on getting hits at the field.

Well, he said it was final, but he might just get tempted to make a run for a final championship ring, that’s just his way.

"As the season gets closer, I wouldn't be surprised at all if he changes his mind," Said Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman.

Randy Moss had other choices, but he preferred to stay with the team that he has being most successful with, New England.

Moss was also pretended by the Eagles who already acquire corner back Asante Samuel from the Patriots, but the 31 year old receiver wanted to keep up with the consistency he showed last season, and much of that is thanks to Tom Brady, one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history.

Philadelphia had a good proposal for Moss, but he declined as he stated that he never had a quarterback of the size of Brady, and so he decided to make a buck less and remain a Patriot.

Randy Moss will be 34 when the $27 million dollar deal for 3 years is over, by which time he might be ready for retirement.

Moss acquire a franchise record for New England last season by catching 98 passes for 1493 yards and also finished with 23 touchdowns, breaking the previous NFL record of 22, established by Jerry Rice in 1987, got recruited for the Pro Bowl, but he skipped the opportunity of playing in Hawaii, he was also named AFC Offensive Player of November and AFC Offensive Player of the Week twice during the past season.

Really an outstanding year for Moss and the Patriots in general, now, will he be as practical and efficient this time? Is the magic still alive for a team that almost finished with a perfect season? Well, if you don’t count the loss at the Super Bowl, they are still the team that has won the most matches in a row with 18 while the Dolphins just got 17 including the championship game, so I am not sure if the Pats will repeat this year, but something is for sure, they want this championship, perfect season or not.

It looks like the TrailBlazers are lacking consistency when it comes to play at Oakland, since they have lost 5 straight meetings at the Oracle Arena against the Warriors.

This time Stephen Jackson led Golden State with a game-high 29 points, while Monta Ellis helped with 22, 10 rebounds and 6 assists to come up with a 110-104 victory over Brandon Roy and his teammates.

Monta Ellis has had his best month since he started playing in the NBA 3 seasons ago, he is currently averaging 26 points per game and it’s on the run for the MVP, but competition is tough for him, considering that he has Kobe Bryant and Manu Ginobili as strong adversaries.

Roy finished with 26 points and Travis Outlaw ended with 17 for the Blazers, who have lost 4 of their last 6, while the Warriors finished 4-1 a 5 game run at home.

It is always good for teams like Golden State to beat important rivals like the Blazers, considering that The Warriors are an underestimated team that didn’t had any players on the past All-Star Weekend, this type of victories are like personal statements against those who doubt them.

Now the Warriors are heading to a 4-game span on the road, and the good moment they are going through should expand their number of straight victories considering that 3 of those 4 next rivals are teams with sub-.500 records.