For the first time ever, the Final Four pitted the top four seeds from each region, and I must say it gave us some pretty good basketball.

While the final scores of the two semifinal games may have got a little out of hand, both games had "watchability", if I can steal a Clark Kellogg-ism.

For those of us that hadn't seen Derrick Rose, WOW!  I had the chance to see him in person in the opener against UT Martin back in November.  I came away from that game 1) very impressed with Lester Hudson and 2) very, very impressed with Rose.  This kid has NBA written all over him.  We saw that this past weekend in San Antonio.  I'd love to see him come back for another year at Memphis rather than get lost in the NBA shuffle, but I don't see that happening.  Rose put on a show against UCLA and nearly willed the Tigers to a win over Kansas.

Speaking of the title game, I really had no rooting interest but I feel bad for the Memphis players.  They really had this thing sewn up and just let it slip away courtesy of their achillies heel; free throw shooting.  If just one of those last three misses goes down, Memphis is your champ.  What a shame.

Either way, it was a very, very entertaining title game and after hearing of the absolute awesome-ness of the weekend from Jeff Bidwell, I am making the Final Four a must-attend event in the near future.  Not so sure about next year in Detroit.  Casinos and cold weather in March not exactly a winning combination.

But hats off to Kansas.  Bill Self has always been a classy guy and I hope he makes the right decision for himself, whether that's staying at KU or leaving for his alma mater at Oklahoma State.

A couple of other quick college basketball hits:

• Have to keep an eye on Lester Hudson of UTM.  Will he decide to stay at Martin or give the NBA waters a test.  Let's all hope he stays so we can watch him one more year.
• Same goes for Chris Lowery. His name continues to come up in coaching searches and unfortunately we will go through this every year he remains in Carbondale.  He's good and people want him.  But just how long can he continue to turn a deaf ear.  With Oklahoma State possibly interested (assuming Self and Gillispie say no) the clock could be ticking.
• Speaking of Gillispie.  I'll call it now.  I would NOT be stunned if he left for Stillwater.  This is just my opinion, but I never felt like he seemed completely comfortable at UK.  Coaching the 'Cats and coaching at Texas A&M or UTEP are apples and oranges.  Not to mention, $4 million a year plus a possible $6 million signing bonus are some pretty big numbers.  And the pressure to win at OSU is a lot less than it is at UK.  And on top of that, no matter what, OSU is a football school, not a basketball school.  It doesn't matter how many 6-6 or 7-5 teams the Cowpokes trot out there, it's a football-crazy state.  Can't say the same about Kentucky.  The spotlight is on Billy G in Lexington 24-7.  Not sure how much he likes that.

On to baseball, and what a start by your St. Louis Cardinals.

If you would have told me this team would be 6-2 and their starting pitching would have allowed just 9 earned runs in 48.2 innings, I would have told you to have another sip of Maker's Mark.

This has been incredible.  The "experts" said if the pitching could hold up until the return of Carp, Mulder, Clement and Pineiro, the Cards may have be competitive. 

Forget that! 

These guys have been outstanding!  The only question is, when will they come back to earth.  You have to think this inexperienced bunch will eventually have a few (if not more than a few) bad starts.

But as long as they're giving 7+ of solid work, the Cards will have shot to win.

Izzy has been solid out of the pen, 4-4 in saves.  Reyes has been pretty good in setup.  Assuming Springer comes back healthy and Franklin remains solid this is turning into a pretty good staff.

I know it's only April 8, but the Cards look like a team that could be in the NL Central race for a while.

The Brewers have jumped out to a nice start, but after that the rest of the Central has been pretty ho-hum.

I wouldn't recommend putting down payments on playoff tickets just yet, but this could turn out to be a lot more interesting of a season than we originally anticipated.

As always, I'd love to hear from you.

Please leave your comments below or email me a question at gmiller@wpsdtv.com

I promise to answer them right here the next time I post a blog.