Renee, Can You Say Threepeat?

It may be your game, and Canada has won the International Ice Hockey Federation women's title nine times, but when it comes to what have you done lately in the IIHF world championships, that trophy has stayed on our side of the border since 2008.

The 13th annual women's International Ice Hockey Federation championship concluded today with a overtime goal by Hilary Knight to secure a hard fought 3-2 Team USA win over Team Canada. for our third straight IIHF women's world title and fourth overall.

USA! USA! USA! 

And to underscore our growing star spangled superiority in 'your game', peep the most recent IIHF Women's world hockey rankings:   

The top ten of the World Ranking is as follows:
1 USA 2970
2 CAN 2930
3 FIN 2800
4 SWE 2700
5 RUS 2670
6 SUI 2620
7 KAZ 2475
8 SVK 2470
9 CHN 2385
10 GER 2355


Don't worry, you'll get another chance to take that title away from us next year.    And Sochi is only three years from now.

Texas A&M Wins 2011 NCAA Women's B-Ball Title

Danielle Adams prophetically called it in a Thursday night YouTube video, then dropped 30 points to ensure her prediction came true as the Texas A&M Aggies won the 2011 NCAA women's title over Notre Dame 76-70.

With the win Texas A&M ended the best season in school history with a 33-5 record and became the fourth Texas based school after Texas (1986), Texas Tech (1993) and Baylor (2005) to bring an NCAA women's basketball title back to the Lone Star State

Yes people, we do play sports other than football and spring football here.

After last night's bricklaying convention at Reliant Stadium, it was nice to see a game where people actually hit midrange jumpers and play defense.  Both teams played hard with Skylar Diggins dropping 23 points for the Irish but a clutch Tyra White three pointer would swell the Aggie lead to 73-68.  A defensive stop by the Aggies on the next Notre Dame possession ensured that the NCAA championship trophy would be coming back to Texas.     

In addition Aggie coach Gary Blair made a little history as well.   He becomes the oldest coach at age 65 to snag an NCAA women's title.


They're probably still partying in Bryan-College Station right now and at Aggieland.

Whoop!   Congratulations to the Texas A&M Aggies.

2011 Women's Final Four Games Today

The 'menz' played two dynamite national semifinal games yesterday at Reliant Stadium and today it is the women's turn in the spotlight. 

Their national semifinal games are a pair of 1 vs 2 seed matchups at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis to decide who meets for the national championship on Tuesday night.

Did a better job on my 2011 NCAA women's bracket in that two of my teams are still alive along with the team I picked to win the title.

There are also some interesting storyline in today's games as well.   UConn's drive to a threepeat will be severely tested in another knock down drag out battle with their Big East rival Notre Dame.  

Notre Dame is playing in their first Final Four since they won the 2001 NCAA title.   To get to this one they knocked off number 1 seeded Tennessee to play what amounts to a home game not far from their South Bend campus.  Skylar Diggins hopes she and her Fighting Irish teammates can win a national championship in her home state.

First time Final Four participants Texas A&M finally beat their nemesis Baylor after losing three previous games to get here but their reward was taking on Stanford.  

The Cardinal have made it to their fourth consecutive Final Four and hope they finally have the talent to get over the hump and bring that title back to the Left Coast.  

H-town's Ogwunike sisters will do their part to help ensure that happens for the Cardinal while the Aggies Danielle Adams and Houstonian Sydney Colson will do their part to try to bring that title back to Aggieland.


The action will be on ESPN, and I'm looking forward to seeing some great games today.

2011 Men's Final Four-David vs Goliath

My brackets are a mess just like everybody else's after this upset filled tournament, but we now know who the four teams left standing are that will be competing for the spot in the NCAA b-ball championship game later today at Reliant Stadium.

It's setting up as a David vs. Goliath matchup, with the David's being the small conference teams of VCU and Butler versus the power conference bluebloods of Connecticut and Kentucky. 

It's also cool that we'll have that theme going into Monday night's NCAA Championship game as well.   VCU and Butler will play one semifinal while UConn and Kentucky will battle in the other game.

And as always in the Final Four, there are the dramatic storylines.    VCU won five games to get here with torrid three point shooting and a dynamic young coach in Shaka Smith    The Rams are tackling a team in Butler who is not only in their second consecutive Final Four, but narrowly missed winning it all last year against Duke in their Indianapolis backyard when a desperation half court three point prayer at the buzzer rimmed out.    Can the Bulldogs get the title they narrowly missed out on?  

One of the Goliaths is the Kentucky Wildcats.   They are college basketball royalty that hasn't won a NCAA championship since Tubby Smith coached them to their seventh title in 1998.    This team wasn't expected to do much after having last year's Elite Eight squad lose five players to the NBA, but has shocked people by making it to Houston.

UConn battled its way out of the brutal Big East and rode the hot shooting of guard Kemba Walker all the way to Houston

They also are attempting along with their female counterparts to accomplish a unique double for the second time.  Back in 2004 UConn won both the men's and women's NCAA basketball titles in the same year, becoming the first Division I school to accomplish that feat.   Can they uphold their end of the deal?  

It's also a rematch of a Maui Invitational tournament game that UConn won back in December .   But now the rematch takes place with a spot in the championship game on the line and the Huskies and Wildcats playing their best basketball.   Who goes home early and who cuts down the nets Monday night?


Should be a lot of fun to watch.
.  

BCS Championship Game Tonight

The nation's sporting attention turns briefly tonight from the chase for the NFL championship to the BCS Championship.   The venue will be University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ for the title clash starting at 7 PM CST later tonight between the Number 1 ranked Auburn Tigers and the Number 2 ranked Oregon Ducks.

This BCS title game will not only be the first clash between Pac-10 and SEC schools, it's also the first that features teams who were not ranked at the beginning of the season.

The SEC has been dominant in BCS title game play, with its members running up a spotless 6-0 record in title games appearances.  Auburn is seeking to keep the SEC BCS championship game record unblemished at 7-0.

Auburn is also seeking to keep the SEC BCS championship streak alive as well and win the conference's fifth straight national championship game and in the process win their first outright national championship since 1957.

The Ducks are not only fighting to validate their pedigree as an elite football school and their first ever national championship, they are fighting for the pride of the Pac-10 conference.    This is the third Pac-10 appearance but the first for a team besides USC.  

Should be a fun game to watch between two high octane uptempo offensive football teams.       

As to which one leaves Glendale with the BCS Championship trophy later tonight?     While my heart is with the Oregon Ducks since it would be their first championship period, my football analyst brain says it'll be Auburn hoisting the trophy when the game is concluded