College Game Day Tweets (Mostly Women's Gymnastics): The Bruins Hit the Road; the Heels Stay Home

1) Samantah Peszek (pictured, a UCLA gymnast): "It's a travel day for the bruins. Off to NoCal we go." (posted Thurs.)

2) VCU Athletics (Men's basketball team has 11:00 a.m. vs. cross-town rival Richmond): "Be early. Be loud. Wear Black. Wreck HAVOC. Let's Go VCU!

3) West Virginia U Gymnastics: "We host our pink meet Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Coliseum!"

4) Kansas Women's Basketball: "Kwbb hopes to continue its Red Raider dominance in Lubbock, Tex. tomorrow"

5) UNC Gymnastics: "Carmichael Arena is ready and waiting for tonight's meet vs. Pitt! Come cheer us on at 7:00......free admission" (Meet will be televised live on ESPN3).

6) Penn State Gymnastics: "Excited for another BUS trip to Columbus, Ohio, tomorrow." (Posted Thurs.)

7). Florida Gators Gymnastics: "When combined rank of teams is less than the ticket-price- that's a deal! No2 Gators vs. #1 Oklahoma. Tix: $5"

http://www.collegegymfans.com

Sports Desk- Kentucky Wins NCAA Men's Basketball, etc.

The big sports news here in the United States this week is that the Kentucky Wildcats beat the Kansas Jayhawks 67-59 for the NCAA men's basketball championship. The Wildcats were the overall number one seed and the team favored to win it all.

In Monday's title game, Doron Lamb guided the Wildcats to victory with 22 points. Anthony Davis, the 'Cats' top player, scored only six points in New Orleans, but he grabbed 16 rebounds, had six blocked shots, five assists and three steals.

The NCAA title is the first for Kentucky coach John Calipari, who has been the head coach of the 'Cats for three years.

SOCCER (MLS)_ While soccer season is winding down in Europe, it is full swing in the United States and Canada. Here are select scores from this weekend's play; the major headline appears to be that the New England Revolution won over the Los Angeles Galaxy, the defending MLS champion:

DC United 4 FC Dallas 1

New England 3 LA Galaxy 1

Colorado Rapids 2 Chicago Fire 0

New York Red Bulls 5 Montreal Impact 2

Real Salt Lake 3 Portland Timbers 2

SOCCER (Turkey): It was a good weekend for traditional Istanbul soccer power Galatasaray; the same can not be said for Fenerbahce and Besiktash, the team's main two cross-town rivals. Here is a partial list of the league games over the weekend:

Galatasaray 2 Orduspor 0

Bursaspor 3 Antalyaspor 1

Samsunspor 1 Besiktash 0

Istanbul BB 1 Sivasspor 0

Trabzonspor 1 Fenerbahce 1, tie

College Gymnastics:

This Saturday, 36 different schools will be in action as the six regional meets will determine the 12 teams that go to the national championships in women's gymnastics in Gwinnett, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb, from April 20-22.

The Florida Gators, winner of the Southeastern Conference, are the overall number one team in the country. The Gators, a team that has come close but never won a title in women's gymnastics, is the top seed in the Raleigh, NC, regional meet.

The regional meets in Champaign, Ill., figure to be exciting as well as the Oklahoma Sooners will face the Stanford Cardinal and a highly competitive Denver Pioneers squad. And, in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Nebraska Cornhuskers, the Big Ten champs, will try to win regionals over the home team Utah Utes, while the Minnnesota Golden Gophers attempt to be upset spoilers.

Here is a list of the teams in these three regional meets; the others will be posted on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time:"


Champaign Regional

1. Oklahoma
2. Stanford
3. Denver
4. Illinois
5. Kentucky
6. Ill-Chicago

Raleigh Regional

1. Florida
2. Ohio State
3. Penn State
4. North Carolina State
5. Kent State
6. UNC Tarheels

SLC Regional

1. Nebraska
2. Utah
3. Minnesota
4. Iowa State
5. Arizona State
6. San Jose State

The Final Four Is Set_ Not a Good NCAAs for Tobacco Road

One week from today, we will see if Kansas Jayhawks coach Bill Self (pictured here) and his team will win the NCAA tournament as they did in 2008.

Yesterday, the Jayhawks defeated a UNC Tarheels team that was without starting point guard Kendall Marshall by a score of 80-67 in a game that close until its last minutes. In the Sweet 16, the Jayhawks narrowly avoided an upset from the North Carolina State Wolfpack in their 60-57 win.

In the win over the Tarheels, Tysham Taylor scored 22 points, Thomas Robinson scored 18 points and Jeff Whiley had 15 points and eight rebounds for the Jayhawks. For the Tarheels, the excellent career of ACC Player of the Year Tyler Zeller, who won a final Four championship in 2009 came to an end.

Kansas will now face Ohio State in New Orleans as Jared Sullinger scored 19 points in the Buckeyes' win over Syracuse in the Elite 8.

There was only team in the Elite 8 which had never won a national championship. But, unfortunately for the Baylor Bears their opponent was overall number one seed Kentucky. In an impressive regionals for the Wildcats, they defeated the Indiana Hooisers 102-90 on Friday, and then turned around to beat the Bears 82-70.

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist had 19 points for the Wildcats and Anthony Davis scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.

They will meet in-state rival Louisville, which lost to the Wildcats 69-62 earlier in the year, as the Cardinals made a 23-8 rally to defeat the Florida Gators 72-68. Russ Smith lead the way for the Cardinals with 19 points.

The Kentucky-Louisville game appears to be the more interesting of the two match-ups for another reason: The Cardinals' coach Rick Pitino used to coach the Wildcats. Both Pitino and Kentucky coach John Calipari are the only two coaches who have taken three different teams to the Final Four.

Sweet 16 Road Trips_ Meet Me in St. Louis

In an amazing coincidence, both the North Carolina Tarheels men's basketball and women's gymnastics teams are going to be traveling to many miles to either meet up with or potentially meet up with (they have to beat Kansas first) their rivals the North Carolina State Wolfpack.

Both schools' basketball teams are headed to St.Louis for the NCAA Sweet 16 regional; both schools' gymnastics teams are heading to Pittsburgh for the EAGL championships.

The UNC men's basketball team will face the Ohio Bobcats (pictured, the image is of player D.J. Cooper) while the Wolfpack basketball team faces Kansas in the Arch City.

The Sweet 16 also has a pair of at least one set of brothers as senior Tyler Zeller will lead the 'Heels, and his freshman brother Cody Zeller will try to help the Indiana Hoosiers upset top-seed Kentucky.

So, with all these things in mind, we decided to mapquest some miles and figure how long it will take a dedicated to drive or arrive by bus; yes, we realize many will probably opt for a Delta Airlines flight.

Here, we go:

1,115- Miles between Raleigh and Lawrence, Kan., where the Kansas Jayhawks are based.

836- Miles betwen Raleigh and St. Louis, where the two teams will actually play.

806- Miles between Chapel Hill and St. Louis

641- Miles between Chapel Hill and Bloomington, Ind., where Cody Zeller plays.

505-Miles between Raleigh and Pittsburgh, should the Wolfpack's gymnastics fans choose to go Greyhound.

500- Miles between St. Louis and Athens, Ohio, where the Ohio Bobcats play.

476- Miles between Chapel Hill and Pittsburgh, should the Tarheels's gymnastics fans decide to go Greyhound.

380- Miles between Chapel Hill and Athens, Ohio.

284- Miles between St. Louis and Lawrence, Kan.

32- Miles between Chapel Hill and downtown Raleigh.

For this survey, we choose the following seven places:

1. Aya Sofia Cuisine, a Turkish restaurant in St. Louis

2. August Wilson Center, an arts venue in Pittsburgh

3. Irish Lion, an Irish pub in Bloomington, Ind.

4. The Raven Bookstore, Lawrence, Kan.

5. Internationalist Books- Chapel Hill, NC

6. The Pit, a barbecue diner in downtown Raleigh, NC

7. Jackie O's Pub and Brewery, Athens, Ohio.