Congratulations are in order

24+ hours of the college basketball marathon are now over and I hope the mulldog is sleeping well. What the man pulled of is one of the single greatest feats a human being can accomplish. Folks I want to remind you this was not March madness, or conference championship week...hell it wasn't even conference play. Mulldog put in 24+ hours of mostly sickening match ups, tons of mid-majors, tons of below mid-majors, and the occasional good team playing some realllll pewch.

Essentially you can claim there were only two marquee match ups on the slate yesterday and that would be zaga v mich state and Memphis v Kansas. I spoke with the Mulldog late two nights ago when the first game, UCLA vs Fullerton was about to get away. I don't even think he was fully aware that we were about to be handed 24 straight hours, but after we talked, he set his mind on one goal and one goal only: Making it to the end.

The best part of this story is the set-up and conditions Mulldog endured during this process. This was not a case of a man sitting in a huge living room, nice leather recliner chair, with a laptop by his side, and a 40 inch HDTV. Mulldog trapped himself in a jail cell, with a 1987 computer, folding chair, and 13 inch Magnovox. I would not have watched one game under those conditions.

I will no longer be astonished when I ask Mulldog...."what do you think of this cal st northridge vs Montana Grizz match up tonight?" and his response is..."Well I have seen this Cal St team play 3 times and they are okay but had a tough loss against Santa Barbara who isn't that good. Montana plays in a tough Big Sky, but their big guys Jenkins can't finish and their guard play is weak."

For him to know any information about either team is absolutely sickening, and impressive at the same time.

Rest up Mulldog. You deserve it.

On another note, I would feel remiss if I didn't make a statement about the Dick Jauron era finally ending. My only regret is that Alex Van Pelt was not given the interim title. Imagine the run he might have had. From two years ago he was in the booth calling games on radio. Moved up to Quality control coach, moved to Quarterbacks coach, promoted to offensive coordinator, and the next logical step would have been head coach which would have been the greatest promotion run in history.

Weird time to fire Jauron because no one even cares in Buffalo anymore. Why not fire him after the poor start? Why not fire him after the bye week? Well they fired him after all and let's see what Buffalo does this off season about bringing in someone new. Buffalo never brings in established coaches because none want to come, and ralph doesn't empty his wallet. So no ralph is on the hook for paying Jauron about $6M to finish his contract, and we can expect Raheem Morris Jr. to be our Head Coach next year.

Millman's Monday Madness

Strasburg Signs:

77 Seconds was all that stood in between the Washington Nationals and Strasburg failing to sign an agreement before the midnight deadline. We have talked about the Nationals strategy and it was good to see a franchise step up and play some hardball even though losing a player of this potential caliber and hype would have been devastating. Strasburg signed the largest ever deal for a rookie by netting $15.1M over the course of a 4 year deal. A quick $7.5 of that coming in a signing bonus. The Nats played this whole situation pretty good I thought and they were stern in standing up to Boras. Granted they still offered up $5M more than anyone else had ever received so its not like they weren't shelling some money out. Boras and Strasburg would have looked like ungrateful jack's if they turned down a rookie deal of this magnitude. They absolutely could not risk not signing and re-entering next year. Too many strange things could happen. I wouldn't expect Strasburg to make much more in terms of noise until the start of next Spring. At least there is now some hope in D.C...something to come out to the ballpark for.

Paulus named Starter:

Greg Paulus opened up Syracuse Football training camp as the #3 QB on the depth chart. Several weeks into practice and he will be the face of the Syracuse Orange football team as the starting QB. The move was really a no-brainer in my opinion. Paulus could have been terrible and I still feel he is the man you have to start. Syracuse Football is the laughing stock of not only the Big East, but of the entire NCAA. They have fallen off the map and this one proud University is an afterthought in the football world. Greg Paulus will bring a hype to the Dome which once used to host sell-out crowds and be one of the loudest most intimidating places to play.

It will be interesting to see if Paulus can succeed and how much rust he will have to shake from taking 4-5 years off to be the hated PG of the Dookies. Not really sure my reaction's on the situation. The Orange are my favorite football squad and every year I sit down and watch the first game. They get crushed. Then I hardly follow them the rest of the year. I don't particularly like Paulus (but that is only because he was @ Duke). Once again, its the right move and it has a chance to put Syracuse Football back on the map from a media perspective at least. Pretty sad state of affairs in Upstate NY football where the Bills and Cuse are willing to sign anyone just to hopefully put some fans in the seats. Maybe Paulus will be lights out and show why he was such a hot recruit coming out of CBA high school. Any chance he parlays this into a NFL career?

Buffalo Bashing:

I was listening to the clown Junkies on the radio this morning and surprise surprise it was all Redskins talk. It is the same argument every day, does Jason Campbell stink? I will save you all the trouble...yes he does. Anyways, why I bring this up is because one guy was defending all the upgrades the Skins made and was saying that Derrick Dockery (former Bill) was a big upgrade. One guy fired back that the Bills straight up cut him and he was terrible. They proceeded to argue that the Bills were just cheap and terrible.

They then had their buddy call in who is apparently a Buffalo NY native. They asked him to name the top things about Buffalo where he could only respond...uhhh, we have good architecture, and Niagara Falls, and Lake Eerie, and wings. Terrible. They then spent the next five minutes saying how terrible Buffalo is and if you live there you are an idiot. Poor Buffalo just getting shredded all over the United States.

Ocho-Cinco Tweeting:

"Damn Breaking news: I have the swagg flu, doctors say there's no cure=many celebrations, sh%# talking, interviews in auto tune, pinata, etc."

"Anyone know Jay Z, tell him before the death of autotune let me get these interviews in first, but then we can have a proper burial in the nzone.

You Had Me at Hello

Just arrived back in the actual state of New York after snapping a 2-month plus absence from beautiful Cana...err Western New York. Apparently, the 5 years of bitching about how much WNY sucks means only one thing - I'm a hypocrite.

Some notes from the trip:
As Millman mentioned, I watched a 2-1 Bisons victory as Nelson Figeroa out-dueled a man I believed to be Dice-K, only with more control and less-electric stuff. Crhis Duncan and Mike Lamb did nothing. And there were 4 hits in the first inning, which we missed - and about 5 hits total in the game. Enjoyable pitching duel with a couple nice defensive plays however.
Brilliant fireworks display, was much more than I expected and the field looked cool as hell when they shut off the lights and it was moonlit...Dominic the Donkey playing as some background music to this wondrous display

More importantly though, what a bizarre place Buffalo is. You drive through the city and it's like being on a country road. It looks like a small city with some reasonably sized tall buildings, ramps everywhere and four lanes. Yet you'll find yourself the only car driving in sight. Always is strange to me at least.

Most importantly however. The greater Buffalo area supports what I discovered to be far and away the greatest establishment of all-time: the Amherst Off-Track Betting facility. I had heard the rumors, but it surpassed my greatest expectations. For one, the place was spotless, even the bathrooms were clean. It was huge, with a large sitting area, a smoker's room, then another "dining" area and then, amazingly, a bar. In fact, a nice bar. 2$ bottles all day every day, Blue Light, Bud Light, the works. Reasonably priced food, Fries for under 3 bucks, with enough to feed about 4 starving children. The only drawback was the high-tech betting machines, which I couldn't figure out in time cost me hitting the first Daily Double of the year at Saratoga. Either way, the place was beautiful.

Hit up the Niagara Wine Trail for some wine tasting. Ended up at a bar in Lewiston followed by a restaurant. This was with my girlfriend and her parents and siblings. My girlfriend doesn't remember anything about the dinner other than me knocking the macaroni and cheese off her fork every time she went to pick it up. Good times.

*Side note, my buddy just called me and said that two more names were released from that steroids list A-Rod was on: Manny and D Ortiz. No big surprises there really. Manny already got caught and Ortiz has had a very bad season.