NCAA Update and the Terrible Astros

Two Top Seeds Fall in Sweet 16

• The #1 seed in the East, the #1 seed Indiana Hoosiers, fell to the #4 seed Syracuse Orange Thursday night, behind a big game by guards Michael Carter-Williams and Brandon Triche. The Hoosiers, who seemed totally flustered by the Syracuse 2-3 zone, never got into the game, couldn't make passes through the long Syracuse defenders and were thoroughly defeated on the boards leading to a 61-50 loss.
• The #2 seed Miami Hurricanes also ran into a Big East buzz saw in the #3 seed Marquette Golden Eagles. Miami was hurt by ice cold shooting in the first hand. The Hurricanes only scored 16 points in the first half and faced a 13 point deficit at halftime. Even outscoring the Golden Eagles in the second half wasn't enough to overcome the 2-12 shooting first part of the game.
• In the other two sweet 16 games last night, the top seeds prevailed. Ohio State needed a last second 3-pointer (for the second straight game) to defeat the Arizona Wildcats. LaQuinton Ross' 3-pointer with 2.7 seconds left gave the Buckeyes the 73-70 edge that ended up being the final, winning, score. In the other game in the west regional, the Wichita State Shockers soundly defeated the La Salle Explorers ending their Cinderella run through the tournament.
• Tonight features the South and Midwest games. #1 seeded Kansas plays #4 Michigan in Dallas, and everybody's favorite #15 seeded Florida Gulf Coast plays #3 Florida in the second game. In Indianapolis, #1 Louisville plays the #12 Oregon, and #2 Duke plays #3 Michigan State.

A-Rod to make more than Astros

• Despite the fact that he is injured and may miss most, if not all, of the 2013 season, Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez will make more money this season than the entire Houston Astros team.
• Rodriguez is nearing the end of a massive deal he signed a few years ago and is making more per year despite seeing a drop in production. The Yankees were reportedly looking for a way to void the remainder of his deal earlier this offseason when he was linked to a PED clinic in Miami but they were unable to do so.
• The Yankees have 4 of the 6 highest paid players in baseball this season with Rodriguez, pitcher CC Sabathia, 1B Mark Texeira and OF Vernon Wells (though the Los Angeles Angels are going to be paying $29 of the $42 million left on Well's contract), who they just traded for. Philadelphia SP Cliff Lee and NYM SP Johan Santana round out the list.
• To put this statistic in context, the Houston Astros salary is so small because they are terrible and young. They are in the process of rebuilding their team that finished a Major League worst 55-107 last season. Many may joke that the team is a quadruple-A team, however they only have about about 7 major league caliber players on their 40-man roster.