The Final Fours and the Phillies

For the first time in a long while, both the men’s and women’s Final Four feature two teams from the same school. The University of Connecticut and North Carolina State men’s and women's teams are both still in the dance. The NC State men have not been there since 1983. This development has occurred much more recently for the two UConn teams. The NC State men were able to continue their run with a convincing win over their rival Duke. The UConn men continue their domination of the tournament, easily winning their region, and are living up to their overall No. 1 seed. Purdue looked like a No. 1 seed as well. Alabama is making its first appearance ever in the Final Four. This is not football!

On the women’s side, Iowa was able to overcome its nemesis from last year and beat LSU behind a great performance by Caitlin Clark, who had 41 points and double-digit assists. The Hawkeyes will come up against the University of Connecticut  and its superstar player, Paige Bueckers, in the second game on Friday. This game should be very close, featuring the two best guards in the country. No. 1 overall seed South Carolina is playing NC State in the first game. Go Hawkeyes!

The Phillies have gotten off to a difficult start, with two wins and four losses on the first home stand. The position players need to stop trying to hit home runs every at bat. The bullpen was supposed to be one of their strengths, but they have been quite disappointing except for their one relief pitcher, Ricardo Pinto, who was just called up from AAA two days ago and pitched four innings to save everybody else. This upcoming series against the Washington Nationals is somewhat important. The Phillies need to start playing much cleaner baseball and get over .500 as fast as possible, so they don't get too far behind the 4-2 Atlanta Braves, who are playing very well so far.