Austin- Ball is Life (AA)

Hello nation, I'm back as a full time blogger, after taking some time off to work on the official Online Publishing March Madness Bracket Challenge. If there's anything that I learned by doing this, it's that basketball is a truly crazy sport. Prime example? Megan Bradley wins our class bracket by basing teams on their uniforms and how much she likes the color combinations. However, she picked Ohio St to win the whole thing so I'm not really sure how she succeeded. But she did. So there's that. Next order of business: the Finals. I picked yet another incorrect game as the first group of freshmen since the Fab 5 advance to the finals. However, it wouldn't last much longer as the star-studded back court of the UConn Huskies (Shabbazz Napier and Ryan Boatright) were simply too quick and skilled to be contained by the large guards of Kentucky. The Huskies never trailed in the game, and ended up winning by 10 or 12 points. And that'll take us to the next order of business. The future of the NCAA stars. Kansas star guard Andrew Wiggins was one of the first players to declare for the NBA draft. The 6'8, 19 year old Canadian elected to go pro shortly after Kentucky was upset by 10 seed Stanford in the 2nd round. The next significant player to declare for the draft was the Jay Hawks star big man Joel Embiid. The freshman announced Wednesday that he would enter the draft after missing both of Kansas' games in the tournament due to injury. The next player to enter the draft was Kentucky Wildcat, Julius Randle. The forward averaged 15 points and 10 and a half rebounds in his only year at Kentucky. Nik Stauskas, the Michigan sharp shooter (17.5 ppg) elected to enter the draft following his sophomore year (this year). Tyler Ennis, the Syracuse guard, Doug McDermott, the Wooden Award winner also elected the draft. Now we wait on one more significant player, and he goes by the name Jabari Paker. Paker, who's known as the nations best all around player, has yet to release his future basketball intentions. If Parker elects to enter the NBA draft, we could see the best draft class since Melo, Wade, Bosh and LeBron in 2003. However, Parker is a competitor. He's got crazy potential, but he's also got unfinished business in the NCAA. To make the situation more intense, Duke has the best draft class in the nation coming next year, including Jahil Okafor. The 6'10 forward has committed to Duke, and he's one of the top dogs coming out of high school in the country. Oh, and by the way, he played high school ball with Jabari Paker last year. They were teammates and attended the same high school. With 4 recruits in the top 30, (including the number 1 and number 5 overall) Duke will be scary good. In my opinion, if Paker stays, the 2015 Blue Devils will be the best team that college basketball has ever seen. But we're a long way from 2015. Who knows what's in store for college basketball. As a Syracuse fan, I'm still waiting on Jerami Grant's decision for his basketball future. Who knows. It's going to be exciting either way. In 26 hours from now, I'll be on my way to St. Augustine, Florida, as we'll be spending a week on Cinnamon Beach. By a week from now, it's very possible that I'll disagree with everything I wrote about today. But until then, this is where I stand. Stay frosty basketball fans.