Weekend Primer
Your guide to the weekend, SIOC style.
50 Cent Concert, UConn, 8 p.m.
The Final Four and 50 Cent in the same weekend? The UConn campus hasn't had a 24-hour stretch this exciting since Jack Bauer foiled that terrorist plot to blow up the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. Expect "Fiddy" to get lots of love from the crowd due to his little-known feud with Syracuse coach JimBoeheim.
CBI Championship Series Game 3: Oregon State vs. UTEP, 10 p.m.
An Oregon State victory vindicates those who believe a losing record shouldn't bar a team from post-season play. A UTEP victory will force the NIT to think twice next time it wants to exclude the fifth-place team in Conference USA.
Crawfest 2009, Tulane University
Ten bands and 16,000 pounds of crawfish are waiting. That's a lot of bands.
Mule Day Parade, Columbia, TN
Ahh, Mule Day. The annual celebration of all things relating to mules. This year's parade has a very special grand marshal: former Tennessee football coach Phil Fulmer. In a related story, Lane Kiffin has released a statement saying he's a better grand marshal than Fulmer, Urban Meyer or any other football coach who's ever been in a parade.
2009 Intercollegiate Quiz Bowl Championship, Dallas, Texas
This year's competition takes place at the scenic Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Hyatt Regency Hotel. It's a venue so lavish it elicited this advice from the Quiz Bowl website: "The hotel has several restaurants offering different types of food at different prices ... NAQT recommends that teams consider ordering pizza." Ah, the glamorous life of Quiz Bowl.
Dick Vitale's All American Special, ABC, 3:30 p.m.
According to the program notes, Vitale will reveal his "All-American choices, 'diaper dandies,' and top coaches." So basically, Vitale will name every single half-decent player and coach in college basketball.
Men's Final Four: UNC vs. Villanova, Detroit, 8:47 p.m.
Only three more games before we're finally free from the soft-news reports about President Barack Obama's bracket. We can only hope Mel Kiper Jr. doesn't ask Obama to prepare a mock NFL draft.
Men's Baseball: No. 19 Florida State at No. 7 Miami, 7 p.m.
The honeymoon for Miami's glistening new "Alex Rodriguez Stadium" is over. Last week, the Canes lost two of three games to No. 3 Georgia Tech, sparking grumblings that A-Rod Stadium can't come through in big games.
Texas Football Spring Jamboree, 12 p.m.
Fans in attendance can pre-order a 12-inch square of the Longhorns grass playing surface. You know you want one. It's only $20. That's a steal for something Colt McCoy may have once stepped on.
