W2W4- Weekend Edition

Because nobody should couch surf without a map...

And on the Eighth Day, God Created 14-16 seeds: Championship week swings into full gear, particularly in some of those fun little conferences that someday aspire to be mid-majors, filled with directionally heavy schools (Coastal Carolina of the Big South, East Tennessee State of the Atlantic Sun), state schools for places that aren't actually states (Appalachian State of the Southern), and schools that rhyme with bigger schools with which we're all familiar (Samford of the Ohio Valley). Fine institutions all, but from a college sports standpoint they're what the average fan would call "random." But make no mistake, these conference tourney games are played balls to the wall, because as good as, say, Austin Peay has been on their way to an Ohio Valley regular season championship, they're not dancing without a win in the conference tournament. Just like 27-4 Winthrop, who ran the table in their Big South season (14-0) could be S.O.L. if they don't get past VMI on Saturday in the title game. The fun continues into next week, and it's a lot more fun than watching big conference teams who know their entry into the 65 team field is sewn up mail it in.

San Antonio vs. Houston (Saturday, 8:30 p.m. EST): A battle for the right to be called the second best team in Texas. More importantly, if the Rockets (currently four games back) want to have any chance of catching the Spurs in the Southwest, they absolutely, positively must win Saturday evening. And since the Spurs seem to have started our, "we're old, but not dead yet" late season vet team push, it won't be easy. T-Mac is back in the lineup, but the Rockets are still short one tall Chinese guy to man the paint. They held up for a while without Yao, but a 6-6 February indicates they're starting to feel the squeeze.

Nashville vs. Anaheim (Sunday, 8:00 p.m. EST): The top two seeds in the Western Conference drop the puck in the O.C. Because the Ducks have slowed down enough over their last ten games (4-3-3), Dallas is no longer an object closer than they appear in Anaheim's rear-view mirror- at five points back, they're just close. Time for Pronger, Niedermayer, and Co. to get quackin'. Get it? Quackin? (Sorry.) The Predators are locked in with Buffalo and the Red Wings for a shot at home ice throughout the playoffs, a big deal for a team that's bulletproof in their building (27-5-4) but slightly squishier on the road (20-13). After going scoreless in his first three games as a Pred, Peter Forsberg posted three in his next trio, and Nashville will need him to keep producing if they're going to sink those oversized tiger teeth into the President's Trophy.