The Missouri men’s basketball team just made sure that it is now baseball season. After correctly picking all of the Final Four teams last year, I cannot look at my NCAA bracket.

But speaking of baseball, Sunday is the day of the Journal’s fantasy baseball draft. Yeah, I know, there is a fantasy sport for everything. At the Journal, we have football, hockey, auto racing, basketball and baseball leagues. It covers the whole year.

So while I am watching basketball, I am thinking about the baseball team I will pick Sunday for a 22-week league. With blizzard No. 2 slated for Monday, it seems kind of wrong.

But going through draft prep for a 14-team league - with a noon Sunday draft - I cannot decide on who is the best pick overall. It seems that this year, there are at least five guys that anyone can feel good about in that top spot. But I think Hanley Ramirez would be the best pick.

And as far as pitchers, is there any pitcher worth taking in the first three rounds not named Santana or Lincecum?

Anyone have any fantasy baseball draft strategies?

- Russo

The endless winter of 2008-2009 is hanging tough, as she usually does in our big snow months of March and April.

Nothing to do, of course, except grin and shovel it, but from the sports standpoint it has to be frustrating to area tracksters, golfers and tennis players stuck trying to practice an outdoor activity while cooped up indoors.

Here’s hoping the sun comes out and the games of spring finally get to bloom.

I’m getting tired of shoveling snow and scraping ice. Does it show?

Jim Holland

It was a great college basketball season all the way around in this state this year — from the South Dakota State women’s near-miss to a top-10 Baylor team in the second round of the NCAA tournament to the selection of Faith’s Luke Enos to the NAIA Division II men’s second-team all-American status after the Jackets made it to the NAIA Final Four. Enos’ teammates Will John Johnson and Cain Atkinson were named honorable mention as well. Another Yellow Jacket, Onida sophomore Katelynn Lamb, was also named to the women’s honorable mention squad after the Jackets made the national tournament.

The USD women had a nice moment in their first year of D-I transition, nearly beating No. 10 North Carolina in Chapel Hill before falling late. The USD men also acquitted themselves pretty well in their first year of D-I competition despite taking a few poundings from Big East schools early.

A couple of Mines men, Brandon Smith and Brent Cass were also named academic all-Americans. The Hardrockers were a little overlooked with Black Hills being so good this year, but they were solid and will be again. The Mines women were young this season, but Coach Felderman will have them back competing for a conference title before long. She always does.

It was an excellent season for South Dakota college basketball and it doesn’t look like its going to regress any time soon.

- Padraic

There are some days that I sit back and am in awe of people much younger than I am. As I sat in my apartment on Monday waiting out the blizzard, I had one of those moments.
Since I didn’t have a whole lot else to do I decided to work ahead on a story and I ended up calling Rapid City Christian’s Christy Schultz for a story I am working on coming up later in the Journal.
Christy is an eighth-grader according to the roster, but the 15 minute conversation I had with her for the story I felt like I was talking to a college student tell me her story of coming from nowhere in particular to finishing with a second and third at last year’s state track meet.
I always find it interesting when I talk to athletes who have done some pretty exceptional things that there feelings behind it are so simple and yet obviously drive them to success.
Christy’s team may not be the biggest, but she seems driven to do some pretty big things.
It is stories like this one that make me enjoy the work I do and really look forward to the spring season.

Jeff

This event was covered in the Journal, but in a sense it was lost in an extremely busy sports weekend in the Rapid City.

The USA Hockey President’s Cup Northern Plains District championship youth tournament brought 18 teams from four states to Rapid City for three days of hockey.

Games were played the Rushmore ThunderDome, Roosevelt Park Ice Arena and the Civic Center Ice Arena.

Unfortunately, also going on here were the final weekend home games for the Rapid City Rush, the state pool tournament and one of three state boys basketball tournaments.

Like it or not, high school and college basketball rules the roost in mid-March, and will command the lion’s share of hard-fought newspaper space.

I’m told the Presidents Cup has a home in Rapid City because of the great facilities and the community’s ability to host a large number of visitors.

Organizers who wish this tournament to get more of the spotlight would be well advised to avoid clashing with basketball tournament weekends, whether the hoops are being played in Rapid City or elsewhere in the state.

–Jim Holland

The high school basketball season is over, which means I have to start fighting off depression for a couple of weeks. I love covering basketball games and when that’s done, I get a little sad, what can I say?

A few thoughts from the Class A tournament last weekend …

1. Congratulations to Madison. I’ve been one of the people who has doubted the Bulldogs’ ability to win the big game over the past few years. There’s no denying their talent, but it seemed that they were just missing something when it came to winning a big-time game. They put an end to all of that with a great run in the tournament. They were the best team in the state and they proved it.

2. Red Cloud disappointed, there’s no doubt about it. They didn’t shoot well early against Sisseton and they tightened up as a result. Stubbornly sticking to a full-court press while the Redmen repeatedly shredded it to score lay-ups didn’t help, either, but Red Cloud and Coach Matt Rama will be right back in the thick of things next year with Carl Swallow, Bryer Iron Cloud, Jeremy Blacksmith, Steven Vitalis and Kiley Weston coming back.

3. Platte-Geddes’ senior trio of Jordan Johnson, Keith Cutler and Collin Ringling is as classy a nucleus as I’ve seen in high school basketball. Obviously having previous success helps somebody deal with failure a little better, but the Black Panthers’ response to losing the title game against Madison was a heck of a tribute to their community, parents and particularly their coach, Frank Cutler. Impressive group.

P.S. Let’s go Orange. All the way.

- Padraic 

Wow, South Dakota State made a statement on Sunday during the first round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. The seventh-seeded Jackrabbits blitzed tenth-seeded Texas Christian, 90-55, to advance to the second round. Not too bad for a team making its first-ever appearance in the tournament.

It looks like I could have been wrong saying they were seeded too high. Maybe they weren’t seeded high enough.

Andrew

Lennox began to distance itself with a 6-0 run to start the third quarter with an 11-point lead. But Sisseton’s Trey Frederick brought the Redmen to within four points of the Orioles with seven of his own points - prompting Lennox to take a timeout.

But, it did little to cool Frederick. He scored four more points in the quarter to keep within striking distance of Lennox, who had a 36-28 lead.

Austin Harms had a fine quarter as well, adding eight points to have a total of 17.

It should be a good final quarter in this one.

- Russo

It was interesting to watch the awards ceremony for the eighth- through fifth-place teams at halftime of the third-place game.

It is good to see that all of the teams are recognized for competing in the tournament, even the ones that did not see that much success.

- Russo

It seems that Lennox has the better team and the better post game through the first half of their third-place game.

Though they have trailed from the opening basket, Sisseton refuses to go away and only trails 22-15 at this point.

Sisseton’s Dustin Lotzer leads the Redmen with nine points. Austin Harms also has nine points to lead Lennox. Neither team has hit a 3-pointer to this point.

Awards were presented to the eighth- through fifth-place teams at halftime. The players were recognized individually. I did not know that the eighth-place team at state receives a plaque and medals.

The Red Cloud players also gave their coach an award.

- Russo