After the being struck by the biggest earthquake in recorded history, Japan attempts to clean up. The biggest hurdle right now? The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. The plant was hit hard by the earthquake and has since experienced two explosions, leaving many people worried about a nuclear meltdown that could kill over 10,000 people. People are being evacuated from the power plants, as well as coastlines. And this is only one of the many problems Japan is facing. Not only are thousands stranded without power or water, but with the state of emergency many survivors have over-stocked on food, leaving thousands of others without anything and still waiting for relief.

Apple had a successful weekend with the launch of the new iPad. The iPad2 sold out within hours of being released to the public. Analysts are estimating 400,000 to 600,000 were sold over the past three days, many of which were bought by new users. The iPad 2 is said to be thinner, lighter and much more powerful than it’s predecessor. It also features a camera that is located on the front and back, which is designed to take pictures as well as video conference. Many experts are saying that the iPad2 will continue to fly off the shelves with the price and technology it offers. Once again, Apple products dominate the market.

On Sunday pro-Gadaffi forces took control of more rebel territory. Within a week the government was able to take over two oil ports once controlled by rebels. They plan to continue moving eastward in hopes of claiming more rebel territory, and pledging to retake the rebel capital of Benghazi. Reports of the takeover followed France’s announcement of calling for a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent air strikes by Gadaffi forces. Many are sure that is the right tactic and could spare the lives of many Libyan citizens, but others question if it’s too late. Where does America stand on this? Fearful of more backlash from the Middle East, America hasn’t said much. But Secretary of State Clinton is heading to Paris to meet with opposition leaders today to discuss their options.

It’s that time of year again, college basketball fans! March Madness, the 3-week productivity sucker, is finally here. And there’s a reason this month accounts for $1.8 billion in unproductive wages, what with the hype of this years picks and snubs. Some of the top contenders are: North Carolina, Duke, Kansas and BYU. And some surprising snubs: Colorado, Virgina Tech, Boston College and Alabama. I don’t know about you, but I just can’t wait for all the Cinderella stories. Watch your back, UNC! Make sure to stay up to date with the scores to find out who is in and who is out.

Photo of the week:

The tsunami wave, caused by the 8.6 earthquake off the coast of Japan, hurdles its way through the Japanese coastline. According to experts, the massive earthquake not only completely devastated large parts of Japan but also tilted the earth’s axis, pushed Japan 13 feet closer to the U.S., and shortened the day by a couple millionths of a second.

If you want to help the earthquake/tsunami victims in Japan, it’s never been easier. Click here for a full guide of organizations that need our support. For many, it takes nothing more than a quick text message.

Our hats go off to the UConn women’s basketball team for winning their 89th consecutive game! This latest win makes these talented ladies the winningest team in NCAA basketball history, topping the 88-game winning streak set in the 1970s by the UCLA men’s basketball team.

It’s important to recognize an achievement this major, yet these girls are kicking butt, stealing records and getting very little media attention for it. This wining streak started a full two years ago and it’s taken that long to get any sort of national attention.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers says:

“…If it was the UConn men’s program, we would be talking about it every day, and that’s part of it. What [the UConn women are] doing is extraordinary and amazing.”

We agree, still, even after the team’s tremendous accomplishment, no one is talking about how the team is dripping with talented athletes, but rather how it is nothing like men’s basketball and shouldn’t be compared to it. Many sports writers feel that women’s basketball is far inferior to men’s basketball, asking whether the female team should even be compared to the UCLA men’s basketball team. They go on about how men and women are very different “just like apples and oranges” and blah blah blah, pointing out the differences between men’s and women’s basketball to make their point:

Men’s basketballs are larger (by around an inch), but are not heavier.
There is a 5 second rule if the defender gets within 6 feet for men and 3 feet for women. (Wouldn’t 3 feet be more difficult?).
Women have 30 seconds to hit the rim before giving up the ball while men have 35 seconds.
Men must be advanced past the half-court line within 10 seconds of getting the ball while women have no time limit.
“Men will always attempt to plow through things with athleticism and skill, while women tend to analyze a situation and come up with a response.” (Uh, is that really a difference in the actual sport? Or has someone been watching too many rom-coms?)

Nay sayers claim they aren’t being sexist, then turn around and call women’s basketball a joke. And it’s offensive. How is a talented women’s team winning 89 games against worthy opponents any different than a men’s team doing the same thing? Even if someone can claim that men are more aggressive, inherently stronger and faster than women, these women are still beating teams on the same skill level as them.

I could not even dream of doing what UConn has done and I’m confident in saying that neither could the sports writers who keep writing this kind of stuff.  I’m not sure who came up with this idea that men are better athletes than women but it’s a little outdated, don’t you think? The UConn women’s basketall team has proved itself, winning consecutive games for two years, and they deserve to be recognized and celebrated for all of their hard work.

It’s no secret that Harry Potter and his fantastical friends have taken the Muggle-world by storm. As we anxiously await the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, it’s not tough to lose hours daydreaming of charging through the brick wall to Platform 9 ¾, hopping on the Hogwarts express, and challenging evil with a wand in hand.

The world of Harry Potter isn’t real, we often remind ourselves. Or, is it? With the advent of International Quidditch Association, an organization that promotes both athleticism and a love of all things HP, over 25 American universities get to take the text of the Harry Potter series and bring it to life in their everyday sport.

With the IQA World Cup happening this weekend in New York (yes, it’s a real thing), CollegeCandy caught up with Jared Roher, captain of the New York regional team, and learned about the quirks of college Quidditch, how to find the best brooms available, and where to sip on a tasty mug of Butterbeer.

CC:  OK, so tell me. How do you guys fly!?

Jared: Okay, so you don’t fly.  Basically, one thing about this version of Quidditch is that you have to hold a broom in your legs while you’re running.  So it’s not a flying game, it’s a ground game.  I’m trying to think of a good way to describe it….rugby, soccer, and basketball kind of mixed.  At the same time, there’s a little bit of a dodgeball element in the game.  It’s a really cool game; it’s just a lot of things going on at once.

CC: Hm. Running with a broom between your legs. Interesting. So how does it actually work?  What does a team look like? And what do you do about the Snitch?

Jared: Well there are the same positions that there are in the books.  There are three Chasers, two Beaters, a Keeper, and a Seeker.  So the three Chasers and the Keeper pretty much play the game in the same way that is in the book.  The Chasers run with the quaffle and shoot on three hoops that the Keeper has to guard.  Are you following me on this one?

CC: Mmmmhmmmm.

Jared: Yeah, that’s pretty much the same thing as the books.  Now the Beater does his work a little bit different[ly].  The Beaters actually have a dodgeball and they [try] to hit any player on the field. If you’re hit – like, minus the Keeper in the Keeper Zone, because there are rules about that – if you’re hit you go into what’s called a knockout effect. [In the books] if you get it usually knocks you for a loop.  So [in the IQA version] you actually have to stop what you’re doing and run around your own goal.

CC: Run around the goal? Three times? OK…

Jared: The Keeper is, like, pretty self-explanatory.  Now, the Seekers and the Snitch are different animals all together.  Basically, the Snitch is what’s called a Snitch Runner; it’s usually someone really fast, like a track athlete, cross country, gymnast, whatever they can get, because they usually ask for volunteers for the Snitch Runner.  They usually dress all in yellow, and the golden snitch is usually in a soccer-sized sock so it’s a longer sock that’s attached to the Snitch’s, like, pants or whatever; it’s just hanging there.  Their job is to run and stay away from the Seeker, and the Seekers have to chase them with the broom between their legs. And this is where it gets interesting. The game starts, every player starts in a starting position and they’ll make sure both teams are ready and at that particular point in time, they’ll send the Snitch Runner off. Pretty much, the Snitch Runner can go anywhere, like, within reason.

CC: So, like, not even on the field? Can they run into the girls’ bathroom?

Jared: Not even on the field.  The Snitch Runner can hide and is the only player who is allowed to do whatever it wants to any player on the field, like push a player down, within reason.  According to the rulebook you can’t break the law and you can’t be hurtful, but you can push, shout, can do whatever you need to keep the Seeker from getting the snitch.

CC: Wow. This actually sounds like something I’d want to watch.  How did you get involved with this?

Jared: It’s a really interesting story. I actually ran into the New York Harry Potter fan club – The Group That Shall Not Be Named – at the New York renaissance fair.  I went up to them and they invited me to their version of the Tri-wizard tournament, which was last year.  They play another version of Quidditch, but I won’t get in to that now.  In the middle of August they decided that the Quidditch World Cup was going to be in New York City this year.  They wanted to go and I was like, “great where’s our team?” [They didn't have one.] And I was like, “Really?  We don’t have a team?”  And they were like, “it’s mostly colleges and we could join a community team, but somebody’s got to take charge.” So me and another girl who play Quidditch at the monthly meet-ups were like, “we’ll do it.”  For the last couple months, we had tryouts and we had consistent practices on Mondays and Fridays to get ready for the World Cup.  So we’re ready.

CC: How many teams are going to be playing in the World Cup?

Jared: I believe 66.  66 between high school, college, and community.

CC: 66 teams? This is bigger than I thought. Now tell me, what kind of brooms do you guys use?  Are they special brooms? Is there a muggle Nimbus 3000?  Could you use a Swiffer?

Jared: Well, there’s a company that makes wands and they’ve actually gotten into making Quidditch brooms.  They’re called Alivan’s.  Right now, because my team is new, I basically told them, whatever broom they can use.  You know?  I told them no Swiffers, though.  I just think that’s ridiculous.

CC: Wait, running around with a Swiffer between your legs is ridiculous but running around with a regular broom is totally normal?

Jared: No, it is kind of ridiculous, I’ll admit that.  I’m sitting here and I’m like “I can’t believe I’m running around with a broom between my legs right now,” but I love the game.

CC: Why did you start playing Quidditch? Basketball wasn’t really your thang?

Jared: It’s something new, it’s something interesting. I like the game, I like that it’s different than your standard baseball/football/basketball. [I like that] the broom between your legs represents a challenge that you have to get past. In a way, it almost acts like an equalizer because someone might be really fast without a broom between their legs, but they won’t be able to run with a broom between their legs so effectively.  So it kind of evens things out in terms of athletic ability.

CC: Who would you say, amongst the IQA, are there teams that are at the top? The teams to beat?

Jared: Um, see that I don’t know.   I hear things about certain schools but then again the game originated there. I’m personally not paying attention to that stuff because if you do that it freaks your team out. On my team it’s about focusing on the fundamentals that I think would make them competitive and trying to build stuff like that.  Yeah, we’re playing for the World Cup, but I want these guys to play Quidditch, I want Quidditch to grow, and I want them to have a good time doing it.  It’s like, I’m more focused on developing skills and conditioning.  That’s like a big part of our team.  We do a lot of conditioning and training.

CC: Quidditch conditioning? What does that entail? Sweeping floors?

Jared:  Workouts always start out with a warm-up run, we do the mile, and then we do drills, strategy, scrimmage for a little bit, and then we usually do conditioning. It involves things like sprints, different kinds of calisthenics.  I’m a really big fan of constantly keeping them moving.

CC: So this this is a pretty serious business then?

Jared: It’s getting there.  People are lobbying to have it be an NCAA sport, they’re trying to become a legitimate sport, so…yeah.

CC: What do people think of you when you tell them you’re on a Quidditch team?

Jared: They think I’m nuts.  Well, half of them think I’m nuts and half of them say, “oh, Jared, only you,” because I do stuff like this all the time.

CC: What would you say to somebody who thinks this is ridiculous or it’s stupid?

Jared: Don’t knock it til you try it. My group opens up practices to anyone who wants to play on Monday night.

CC: What do you think is so endearing about the Harry Potter books? Enough that people are so obsessed with it that they’re going to take a sport from a fictional book and bring it into real life?

Jared: I think JK Rowling put together a really unique and interesting world and everyone wants a little magic in their lives.  It’s just, you know, as something that people can do it’s probably the easiest thing to bring over. I mean, you know, there’s a lot of things in Harry Potter that I’m pretty sure people wanted to get involved with but the realities are different. This is probably the easiest one and a fun one.

CC: So how will you celebrate if you make it to the World Cup finals? You gonna take the team to The Three Broomsticks to celebrate with some Butterbeer?

Jared: We’re going to figure where we’re playing in our next game and focus on the next game. And celebration, we’ll figure out the celebration afterward.

[Photo courtesy of the New York Times.]

After weeks of nail biting games, on-the-buzzer wins, bracket disappointment (I was losing to my 11-year-old cousin before the Elite 8 even started) and a lot of weeknight drinking, the NCAA National Championship game is finally here. Which means one more night of intense beer drinking while my guy friends talk sh*t to each other. Until fantasy baseball season starts….

I’m really excited for tonight’s game, partly because I love watching giant 18-year-olds run up and down a court and partly because I don’t have to deal with those annoying MSU people throwing their awesome basketball team’s record back in my face. I get it – Michigan’s basketball team didn’t make it. Can we move on now?

Anyways, tonight at 9:21 ET, during my regularly scheduled episode of Gossip Girl, the Duke Blue Devils will be taking on the Butler Bulldogs (or, as I like to refer to them, the Butler Babies, because their coach is, like, 12)  to see who truly is the best college basketball team in the country.

Will Butler continue their 26-game winning streak and take the title, or will Duke slaughter them like they did poor West Virginia on Saturday night?

Who are you rooting for?

I’m a resolution maker. I think January 1 is a great time to stop, think about the things you want to do better for yourself, and start the improvement process. And while I’ve set a few for myself this year (thanks to that post-holiday trip to the scale), what I’m most excited for are the resolutions I’ve set for my relationship.

Matt and I have made it through our first whole calendar year together and we have a lot to look back on and think about. Seeing where we went wrong and discussing what we can do to make it better in the new year can help our relationship (pssst. this can help yours, too!) become strong and help us become more aware of each other. Now that we both know each other better than anyone else in this world, we should have a better sense of what we should and can do to make our relationship even better.

So here are just a few little things I will be working on in my relationship in 2010. No relationship is perfect – perhaps a few of these will help you and yours.

1. I will fight fair. This means no name calling, low blows, or bringing up old history

2 I will make him know that he is appreciated and needed. Every guy needs this, yet most women have a hard time showing it.

3 I won’t assume. Just because he doesn’t want to cuddle before we go to bed doesn’t mean he doesn’t love me anymore. No more jumping to conclusions

4 I won’t use sex as a weapon. This is just unfair. And bitchy. As tempting as it may be.

5 I will share the remote. If I make Matt sit through Project Runway, it won’t kill me to watch NCAA basketball.

Take some time and think about some changes you want to see with your boyfriend/girlfriend. You can set your own resolutions (“I will not yell at him when he wants to watch football all day”), or set resolutions together (“We will have date night at least one night every week”). If you make some resolutions that you each can hold each other to, it can seriously take pressure off of the relationship. Just be sure to share your resolutions and make sure they’re actually helpful. You’re not going to get anywhere if you have “throw out his Playboys while he’s in class.”

Also, if you or your boyfriend breaks a resolution and falls back into old habits, don’t immediately fly off the handle! Starting fresh with resolutions should also be paired with starting fresh if one of you makes a mistake. Always try your hardest to forgive.

So what are your relationship resolutions?

Welcome back to

This week we deviate from our typical Rival Rundown in two ways. First, we’ll be covering a (women’s!) basketball rivalry, as the athletic calendar moves into a new season. Second, this rivalry–between the University of Connecticut and the University of Tennessee–has been canceled! Though lauded by Sports Illustrated as one of the most intense rivalries in any sport this decade, in 2007, officials at Tennessee mysteriously elected not to renew their contract to schedule any further seasonal games against UConn.  What makes this rivalry, apart from its shocking termination, unique? Read on to find out!

Quick Facts

UConn: Public land-grant research institution in Storrs, CT with 17,000 undergraduates. Founded in 1881.
Tennessee: Public research institution in Knoxville, TN with 21,000 undergraduates. Founded in 1794.

1. Women’s Basketball Record

UConn: 13-9
Tennessee: 9-13

Three credits to: UConn

2. Coaching Caché

UConn: In Geno Auriemma’s 24-year tenure as head coach of the Lady Huskies, he has transformed the team, which formerly had but one winning season, to 6-time national champions with three perfect seasons and 32 Big East conference titles.
Tennessee: Pat Summitt has been honored for many achievements in her 30-year career, most notably as the all-time winningest basketball coach–of either men or women–in NCAA history.

Three credits to: Tennessee. All-time winningest > three perfect seasons.

3. Fun Facts

UConn: In 2004, UConn became the first and only college to win NCAA titles in both men’s and women’s basketball in the same year.
Tennessee: Nicknamed the Volunteers (or Vols for short), the UT mascot references the state namesake and its historical tradition for residents’ volunteering for service in major American wars.

Three credits to:  UConn. Can your school top that?

4. Ass-Kicking Alumni

UConn: Meg Ryan (attended), Moby (attended),  Rebecca Lobo
Tennessee: Al Gore, Peyton Manning,  Pat Summitt

Three credits to:   Tennessee. Can’t argue with this one!

5. Acceptance Rate Agony

UConn: 54.5%
Tennessee: 64.8%

Three credits to:  UConn

And the diploma goes to: UConn squeaks by to win this rundown. Stay tuned through this season to see if these heated rivals will face one another in March Madness!

This week we hit up the West Coast as we examine the two hottest schools in Los Angeles- the University of Southern California and the University of California- Los Angeles. Amidst the beautiful SoCal climate and a city rife with movie sets and superstars, private USC and public UCLA compete to find out which is most elite in the City of Angels.

1. Superior Sport

USC – The Trojans are known as “the football school” and have been awarded the NCAA national title in football eleven times, including back-to-back titles in 2003 and 2004.  They are perennially ranked in the Top 10 football programs in the BCS by ESPN, USA Today, and other publications. And Trojans have taken home the Heisman Trophy seven times.
UCLA - Meanwhile, the Bruins are known as powerhouses in basketball–also earning eleven NCAA titles. Seven of these championships were won consecutively, from 1967-1973.  UCLA is also the all-time leader in total NCAA national titles across all sports.

Meanwhile, the Lexus Gauntlet is an annual all-sports competition between the two schools sponsored by Lexus. Points are awarded for every victory (particularly in head-to-head match ups)  in NCAA-sanctioned competitions, with the school with the most points declared as the winner. (There is also a separate Lexus Gauntlet awarded to the winner of the Stanford-Berkeley rivalry.)  In the eight years of Lexus Gauntlet tradition, USC has walked away with five titles.

Three credits to: TIE.  The two schools pulled a draw in NCAA titles in their respective predominant sport.  On the one hand, the Lexus Gauntlet record gives the Trojans the edge, but UCLA also has the most NCAA titles of any school. Too close to call!!

2. Terrific Traditions

USC – Trojans can’t withhold their affections for Traveler, the magnificent white horse ridden by a student in full Greek armor at every football game, and Tommy Trojan, the iconic statue of the school’s mascot found on campus. But Songfest, an annual talent show in which frats & sororities compete against one another to benefit the charity TroyCamp, is a highlight of the social calendar. When it comes to hatin’ on their crosstown rivals, some USC students once set loose thousands of crickets on the UCLA campus.
UCLA - Like the Trojans, UCLA also has its own child-oriented charity called UniCamp.  Students donning blue and gold love exhibiting card stunts (flashing the university logo, for instance) at basketball games and occasionally dousing Tommy Trojan with UCLA-colored paint.

Three Credits to: USC, for the campus-rockin Songfest.

3. Hottest (LA) Hood

USC - Located in University Park, USC is adjacent to the Los Angeles Coliseum and sits on Figueroa Street, which connects the school to the Staples Center and historic Chinatown.
UCLA - The Bruins are located in the Westwood Village section of Los Angeles, a wealthy and scenic section of town that is home to several vintage movie theaters and stretches of beautiful homes.  Oh, and the Playboy Mansion is just a hop, skip, and jump away!

Three credits to:  UCLA - who doesn’t want to party with Hef?

4. Ass-kicking Alumni

USC –  Neil Armstrong, Will Ferrell, Whitney Port
UCLA – Lo Bosworth, Francis Ford Coppola, James Franco

Three credits to: Let’s see…Whitney is SO much cooler than Lo on The Hills, and while Will Ferrell can make me pee my pants, I’d rather have James Franco in them. It’s another close one, but I’m going to have to go with UCLA because others have walked on the moon, but only FFC could have directed the masterpiece The Godfather with such genius.

5. Acceptance Rate Agony

USC- 22% of over 35,000 applicants were accepted for the class of 2012.
UCLA-  22.7% for the university with the largest number of applicants in the United States (over 55,000!)

Three credits to:  USC…by a nose!!

And the diploma goes to: …its a TIE! Seriously, its too close to call who wins this rivalry. Both schools boast terrific academics, athletics, and high-profile alumni–how can you choose? For all of you Angelenos out there, what do you think?

We’re talking hardcore, fast and furious, make it or break it time.

Only 16 teams left. And only 8 spots remain to be filled in the Elite Eight. Who will make it? I give you my predictions below, after watching the action-packed first two rounds of the tourney.

First of all, we can finally settle the debate on which conference is the best this year, and possibly even in history. For the first time in the history of the NCAA tournament, five teams from one league advanced to the Sweet 16. The Big East is home to Connecticut, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Villanova, all of which made the cut and will play in the regional semifinals on Thursday and Friday.

The ACC, which was the other conference in the debate, only has two of its members left, although they are reputably two of the best college teams and have one of the biggest rivalries in sports history: UNC and Duke. (Sidenote: dark blue is wayyy better than that gross baby blue color. Eww.)

Anyway, do you remember last year when, surprisingly, all four #1′s made it to the Final Four? Well, this year marks the first time all the 1-, 2-, and 3-seeds are in the Sweet Sixteen. Looks like Cinderella is going to be hard to find this year.

But what a great first two rounds it’s been.

Does anyone remember Demetri Goodson’s last-second game-winner in that 83-81 second round Gonzaga victory over Western Kentucky? Or how Ty Lawson came back from a toe injury and permanently quelled rumors with his 23 points, 6 assists and 0 turnovers against LSU? And when Clemson’s Terrence Oglesby was ejected from the Michigan game for elbowing off the screen and cried about it like the little girl he is in the locker room afterwards? Ok, maybe I’m being a little harsh on him. It’s just because no one looks man enough next to the almighty Gerald Henderson.

Now for my picks:

East- Pitt over Xavier, Duke over Villanova (gotta go with the Dukies).
Midwest- Louisville over Arizona, Michigan State over Kansas (it’s over for the defending champs).
South- Syracuse over Oklahoma, UNC over Gonzaga (the Orange winning in 6 overtimes?Mad props).
West- UConn over Purdue, Memphis over Missouri (the Mizzous will give Memphis a run for their money, but the higher seed will prevail in the end).

No Cinderella this year, it looks like. But it’s ok; the chalk bracket will be a heck-of-an event to watch. I guarantee it.

Once you get past the fact that the NCAA Selection Committee made the mistake of not including some of the best teams that could have been this year’s Cinderella (Arizona State instead of St. Mary’s? come on), the board actually came up with a pretty good draw. And for the next 2 weeks, I will be fully immersing myself in the insanity and awesomeness that is the most exciting sporting event of the year: March Madness.

The best conference in the country (and maybe in history) is hands-down the Big East. 3 out of the 4 number 1 seeds are from the Big East: UConn, Louisville, and Pitt. Even Barack Obama believes in the dominance of this conference, since his bracket that he filled out on Wednesday (live on ESPN! what a cool prez) shows it filling half of his Elite Eight. Although Obama didn’t have our lovely school in his Final Four, Coach K isn’t worried.

And he shouldn’t be worried either. Thursday was the big first day of the NCAA tournament, and the big seeds shined just like they were predicted to. During lunch I heard the big news of #1-seeded UNC ripping Radford to shreds in the South, winning 101-58 (42 points too many, in my opinion). The other #1-seeded UConn also came out with a deafening roar, with the Huskies winning 103-47 against Chattanooga. #2 Memphis (who I have going to the Final Four) won as well, and of course the almighty Blue Devils beat Binghamton (ha, no chance at all).

The upsets were few, but pretty significant. Both the #10′s beat both the #7′s: Maryland showed they earned their spot in the draw by crushing California, while Michigan just got by Clemson (serves them right for beating Duke once in a fluke). Editor’s Note: GO BLUE!

#12 Western Kentucky beat #5 Illinois in a shocker, which definitely messed some of my friend’s brackets up and led to some name-calling on FB statuses (but with a “hilltopper” as mascot, they’re kinda asking for it). #9 Texas A&M beat #8 Brigham Young, which was expected, but the one non-upset that got me most upset (because it ruined my otherwise perfect bracket) was #6 UCLA squeezing by #11 VA Commonwealth! The score was 65-64, in a real nail-biter of a game (seriously, you should see my nails).

Oh well, 15 out of 16 – that ain’t bad. Watching the madness ensue on our flat-screen tv in the common room – that ain’t bad. Having Super G on our team – that’s the total opposite of bad. Now, if only Ty Lawson from UNC never comes back from sitting-out due to his injury…well, that’ll just be the icing on the cake.

March Madness kicks off today with the first 16 teams competing to move ahead, and while one CollegeCandy writer isn’t into the games, everyone else in the world is.

It’s the most exciting three weeks of the year for college sports as the entire country stops everything they are doing (seriously, even President Obama is trying to squeeze some game viewings in between his NATO meetings) to see which college basketball team is the best in the country.

Not into basketball? Well, then it’s an excuse to paint your face and drink beer on a weeknight. Not that you really needed an excuse…

Everyone is buzzing about the Presidente’s NCAA picks (UNC to go all the way?). Do you agree? Who do you think will take the title this year? Let out your school pride in the comments section below!