Beautiful day here in mid missouri, 80's and clear. The kind of weather that generally gets folks amped up for the looming baseball season and our Cardinals and Royals. But this day the talk was centered largely on march madness and the games from this first round. Most specifically Dana Altman and his Oregon Ducks. Might seem strange to some that Altman and his Ducks would garner much interest here in the heart of the midwest. But a lot of us know Dana from his days coaching in my hometown up the road 36 miles in little Moberly where he coached the Jr College Greyhounds. I consider myself fortunate to have gotten to know Dana from those days. Hard to believe it was that long ago. I will say this, as good a coach as Dana is he is a better man. I have complete respect for him both as a head coach and as a good man. There will be many folks making the trip to Kansas City this weekend to watch his kids play Michigan in the sweet sixteen. It was a cruel twist of fate when his club lost Chris Boucher for the remainder of the season to injury. I would have loved to see how his club would have fared had they had their full starting line up. We will never know. But it is a tribute to Dana and his club to have made the sweet sixteen. They knocked off a Rhode Island club that was far better than most suspected. They fell behind but fought back. They will have their hands full with a red hot Michigan club thursday night. That is going to be a tough hurdle.
That was about the size of it today. Most of us were shocked at how South Carolina took out Duke. And Arkansas having North Carolina on the ropes. I would say with Florida handling Virginia the SEC made a pretty good showing of themselves. They are introducing Martin as the new head coach at Mizzou later this afternoon. Optimism is high that he can guide the Tigers back to a point where they are also once again in the dance. Time will tell. A lot went into that hire I am not able to disclose. But I can tell you he was the guy they wanted and went after. Props to them for getting him. I just hope everything now falls into place as they hope.
Hope everyone has a great week. Good luck with your action.