Bracketology - 2nd Week Results....

This has been one of the best NCAA's in recent history, with so many good close games to watch....unfortunately, with all the upsets, it's wrecked nearly all the brackets in this challenge!! So, let's see who's still alive....

Scott Tuttle is still hanging on to first place with 231 points and 40 correct picks...and though he had Kansas taking it all, he also has West Virginia in the final game, and could still pull this off! Nice job, Scott!

I've still got second place with 227 points and 39 right...but I'm completely done. I did have Duke in the Four, but that's it. I think I'll be sliding down the standings after this week!

In third, Thad Hunsberger with 225 and 42 right (remember, bonus points for picking lower seeds count!). He's still has West Virginia into the title game, so he's still alive.

Fourth, Seth Baron with 216 points and 36 right...but he's got Butler in the final game! Kudos to Seth for that gutsy pick!

And in fifth, Brenda Gawthrop with 201 points and 38 right...but she has the only championship pick still in play with West Virginia...depending on how things go, she could pull it off!!

In case you were wondering, Todd Owens has clinched last place in our pool, and even sits behind his preschool daughter's picks in his family pool. If you know Todd, be sure to give him all sorts of stuff about this poor performance.

I'll be back with the final results on Tuesday after the championship...thanks for playing!

"A Life In Balance"...

Saturday morning I was sitting in my chair at the dialysis center feeling pretty sorry for myself. I know that most of you just see me smiling and happy most of the time, but I do have my moments when my kidney failure really gets me down. As the machine hummed, I sat and thought about all the fun things I could be doing with the great weather outside, and how frustrated relying on a machine to stay alive is. In the midst of my pity party, I came upon a short article in Sports Illustrated that gave my perspective a well-deserved kick in the tail...

"A Life In Balance" by Phil Taylor

Anthony Robles can do it. Do what? Whatever you might think someone with only one leg can't do. Ride a bike? He learned when he was five, with no more tumbles than you probably had. Run the mile? Technically, Robles "crutches" the distance, but he's done it in as little as eight minutes, which is better than a lot of people with two good legs. Play football? When he was 14 he hopped out to his position at defensive tackle for his junior high team in Mesa, Ariz. Sometimes blockers knocked him over like a bowling pin, but by the end of the season he had dragged down his share of ball carriers.

If there's something Robles can't do because he doesn't have a right leg, he hasn't come across it yet. As for what he does best, it's obvious every time he puts on his Arizona State wrestling singlet and twists another opponent into a human slipknot. Last season Robles was an All-America in the 125-pound class as a sophomore and finished fourth at the NCAA championships. Most people would call that amazing. Robles calls it an appetizer. This year's NCAAs begin on Thursday in Omaha, and Robles, seeded fourth at 125 with a 28--2 record, will need to win five matches over three days to become a national champion. "I've been thinking about it nonstop since last season ended," he says. "I want the whole thing."

From the waist up, the 5'8" Robles looks every bit the wrestling champ. His chest and back are as wide as the screen at your local cineplex and so thickly muscled that it's no surprise he can bench-press almost three times his weight. His handshake nearly snaps your metacarpals, and he can do so many push-ups and pull-ups that you get tired of counting them before he gets tired of doing them. "And his heart," says former Arizona State coach Thom Ortiz, "I can't even begin to tell you about the size of his heart."

Sometimes sports build character; other times they reveal it. For Robles, wrestling has been a way of showing that he's too strong, in every sense, to be held back just because one leg of his pants hangs empty. "You define yourself by what you can do, not what you can't," he says. Robles does that by immediately dropping to the mat at the start of every match, negating some of his balance disadvantage by forcing his opponent to get low with him. Once there, one of his favorite moves is the ball and chain, in which he grabs an opponent's wrist with one hand, pulls that arm through the man's legs, then grabs the elbow of that arm with his other hand to gain control.

Robles had none of that technique when he began wrestling in the ninth grade. His only goal was to avoid being seen as a novelty or an object of pity. "I could tell that some guys were afraid they were going to hurt me," he says. "I hated that." But he laughs when he shares those memories. In fact, he laughs a lot, which balances out all the times he's brought people to tears.

His mother, Judy, cried on the day he was born, his right leg missing all the way up to the hip. An ultrasound had not shown an abnormality, and Judy wept not so much because her baby was imperfect but from the shock. "They did dozens of tests after he was born, but they were never able to find any explanation for it," she says. "It's something that was just meant to be, and now we see it as a blessing." It quickly became clear that the missing limb was not going to limit Anthony's activity. He was fitted with a prosthetic leg when he was three, but he soon figured the time spent putting it on and taking it off could be used for playing, so he tossed it when he was seven and has either used crutches or hopped ever since.

There were more tears when he began wrestling in ninth grade, not so much from Robles but from the spectators who watched him compete. "Grown men would come up to him after matches wiping their eyes, just to shake his hand," says Bob Williams, his Mesa High coach, who has misted up too. Once, when Robles was a sophomore, Williams made each wrestler run laps while holding a 20-pound sandbag after the team's poor performance at a meet. He didn't expect Robles to carry one, but he didn't tell him not to, either. Robles dropped his crutches, picked up the sandbag and hopped a few steps before falling. He got up and hopped a few more times. Another fall. He rose again and again. He fell again and again. But he didn't stop until the rest of the team did. Is it any wonder that one of his nicknames is Braveheart? "I had to turn away," Williams says. "It was hard to watch, but at the same time it was one of the most inspiring things you could imagine."

It will be even more inspirational if Robles wins the national title this weekend—at least it will be to most people. Lately there has been grumbling, mostly the anonymous type floating through cyberspace, that missing one leg gives Robles an advantage. Because he has less weight in his lower body he can have a more muscular torso than his opponents and still stay in the 125-pound class. "There will always be haters," he says. But maybe they've learned something from Robles, too: There is no weakness that cannot be turned into a strength.

As I read this, I cried quietly in my chair, inspired by the perspective of this young man, and disappointed in myself for letting my health get to me. There are so many people with so much more to overcome than me, and like Anthony, I need to not see my condition as a weakness, but as a strength...a way to make me stronger, and a way to reach and touch those around me. My pity party over, I took off the headphones I normally wear to shut the world out during treatment, and took some time to talk with the patients and techs all around me. Saturday turned out to be a pretty good day after all.

Here's hoping we all realize we are blessed no matter what we face today.

Bracketology: Round 1 Results...

Gotta love Northern Iowa...

The happy boys above wrecked the brackets of about 3/4ths of the Bracketology field this year, taking out Kansas who many had picked to take it all. So without further ado, here's the standings going into the Sweet 16:

In first place, Scott Tuttle with 35 correct and 207 points. Sadly, he was one of the many to pick the Jayhawks to win it all, so enjoy your time on time, Scott...I don't think it'll last long.

In second, me with 33 right and 195 points. (taking a bow) I have Kentucky meeting Syracuse in the finals, so I'm still in it.

In third, Thad Hunsberger with 35 right and 190 points (don't forget the bonus points for picking lower seed upsets!) Nice work, Thad!

Fourth and fifth are Brenda Gawthrop and Seth Baron at 182 and 181 points, respectively. (...and we all know Seth's picks are actually Kindra's second entry...)

Bringing up the rear is my good friend Todd Owens with 24 right and 103 points. Here's hoping you're equally sucktacular at our baseball draft on Friday!

Thanks to all who entered...can't wait to see the results this weekend!

Time To Fill Out The Brackets....

Yes, it's that time again, and again I will lay down the gauntlet to anyone who reads this drivel to come and join us in the 4th annual Rob's Random Ramblings Bracketology Challenge! It's free, and there are no prizes, other than the chance to gloat over all that have entered. If you're interested in joining in on the fun, here's how you do it:

Click here to be taken to the league's home page where you can enter. (You will need a CBSSports.com account...which is free and only takes a minute...) The password for the group is "irish" (don't use the quotes) and from there you can make your picks. I will update her on this blog and Facebook after each round and you can see how well or poorly you are faring.

Looking forward to pounding you all into the ground this year....it's gotta be my time, right........right?!?

To those of you that played last year, you should've gotten an email invite from the league, and to those of you that are new, welcome....now, let's get it on!

Coolest Thing I've Ever Seen...

(HT to Best Week Ever...)

If you don't know OK GO's music, chances are you know their videos. Their "treadmill video" for "Here It Goes Again" has over 45 million views on Youtube. Well, they have topped themselves with an amazing contraption and a single, unedited shot of it in progress. Growing up, I was facinated by "Rube Goldberg" machines like this, and always dreamed of making something this cool. Take a watch, and dare you not to smile....

I Want To Be Like Them When I Grow Up...

I first met Jon & Kristin LeVan as college students at my church. I taught their class for about a year, and got to know them both. They had wonderful personalities, and they both could light up a room when they entered. They were friends to everyone, and always had a smile for you. Less than a year ago, Jon and Kristin found out they were expecting their first child. That incredible joy was tempered early on when the found our their baby suffered from oliogohydramnios, a very rare disease caused by a lack of amneotic fluid. The child had no kidneys, stomach, and bladder, and showed signs of possible brain damage. Most babies with this condition don't even make it out of the womb, and those that do die shortly there after. A natural response to this would be to terminate the pregnancy and save the couple alot of pain and suffering....but Jon and Kristin chose the road less traveled.

They decided to pray for a miracle and carry this baby to term. Their postive attitude through all of the doctor's visits and knowing that the odds were stacked against them has inspired and moved me. I saw Kristin at a basketball game a few weeks ago. She actually sought me out to tell me she was praying for me and asking how I was doing. I appreciated it even more knowing what she was going through, but her thoughts were to encourage others. In those few moments, she blessed and encouraged me far more than she ever realized.

This past Sunday, Jon and Kristin had a little boy they named Joshua Ezekiel. He lived for an hour after his birth, then went home to Jesus to be made complete. Though it had to be heart-breaking, reading how God was there for them in this post moved me to tears and inspired me to kneel in my office and pray for them and thank God for their attitude and witness to all those around them. I know when Joshua entered Heaven, he took off running to the arms of Jesus, his body whole and perfect in every way, being cheered on my first born child I never knew and many others who didn't get the chance to be held by their mommies and daddies. I fully believe that life begins at conception...and that my child is there in Heaven with Joshua right now.

I know some have praised me for how I've handled my kidney failure....but I can't hold a candle to what I've seen and learned from Jon and Kristin. I want to be that secure in my faith and that willing to leave it all in His hands. I want to be like them when I grow up. Thanks for being "Jesus with skin on" for me today, Jon & Kristin....so proud to call you friends and brothers and sisters in Christ.