March Madness is coming to a furious conclusion with the Final Four this weekend. The four teams remaining - Michigan St., Arizona, Duke, and Maryland - will battle for the right to play for the National Championship.
The first game, scheduled for late Saturday afternoon, has Arizona squaring off against Michigan State. Arizona is in the Final Four for the first time since 1997, when it won it all - its only National Championship in school history. This year's team, led by Loren Woods and Gilbert Arenas, was the preseason favorite and has not disappointed. Defending champion Michigan State has six key returning players, including senior starters Charlie Bell, Andre Hutson, and David Thomas.
It seems that Arizona is the more talented of the two teams, but Michigan State has a number of veterans that play well together. The game may be decided by rebounding and whether Loren Woods, the 7'1" Arizona center, can establish himself inside.
The second game pits Duke against Maryland for the fourth time this season. Though all three previous games were close, Duke won two of those meetings, including the most recent, in the semifinals of the ACC tournament. All-Americans Shane Battier and Jason Williams lead a balanced attack for the Blue Devils.
Maryland is in the Final Four for the first time in school history. The Terps, led by Juan Dixon and Lonny Baxter, will come out with a lot of energy at the start but experience and poise in the game's last ten minutes, which Duke possesses, generally proves more valuable. Barring a very poor shooting night from Devil point guard Jason Williams, Duke should win.
In baseball news, injuries are the big story. Star players likely to miss Opening Day include Kevin Brown, Derek Jeter, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Javy Lopez, and Nomar Garciaparra. Garciaparra has an injured right wrist and has not played all spring. If his wrist requires surgery (which it most likely will), he will miss between three and four months of the season. Garciaparra has opted to wait a few days, hoping the injury will improve, before deciding whether to succumb to the knife. Lou Merloni, Mike Lansing, or Craig Grebeck would likely fill in for Garciaparra.
At least, for Boston Red Sox fans, Pedro Martinez seems as good as ever. In his most recent start, Martinez allowed four hits and struck out three, lowering his earned run average this spring to 0.47. Overall, he gave up one run on 11 hits, walked one and struck out 24 in 19 innings.
After flirting with .400 last season, Colorado Rockies first baseman Todd Helton has agreed to a new contract worth $151 million over 11 years. It is the fourth-largest deal in sports history.
In NBA news, Alonzo Mourning of the Miami Heat, played in his first game of the year on Tuesday. In October he was diagnosed with a kidney disease and was expected to miss the entire season. In Tuesday's loss to the Raptors, Mourning had nine points and six rebounds in 19 minutes. Although he is unlikely to be the Mourning of old immediately, his return will make the Heat a very tough playoff team.
