It's time.  Winner takes on Illinois.

Carolina must neutralize MSU's speed and athleticism by playing tough perimeter defense against their backcourt.  MSU needs Paul Davis to have the game of his life, and force McCants and Felton to have a tough night from the field.

Tipoff will start in about another half hour or so.

8:53:  Tipoff starts, and Carolina's already got two fouls in the game.  However, Michigan State seems a little off balance at the defensive end, and if that happens throughout, Carolina will score 90 tonight.  Tied at four.

9:00:  MSU's quickness is getting the best of Carolina on the offensive end, but their post game so far isn't working.  Meanwhile, May hasn't been able to establish anything yet in this game, and it's important to get him started early, just like he did against Wisconsin in the Elite Eight.  8-6 MSU.

9:03:  North Carolina at it's finest:  making plays that no other team can possibly make.  A huge alley by McCants wakes up the crowd.  Next time down court (after a block forces the turnover), Felton gets a great pass to Noel for a nice dunk.  Maybe they can deal with MSU's athleticism.  The only problem I see so far is that they're allowing MSU more attempts under the basket than they should.  13-12 UNC.

9:12:  If you like an athletic contest, this will be the game for you.  Beautiful plays by both teams.  Sean May hit a basket in the paint and gets the foul, but misses the ft.  He's still a bit rusty, and takes a break on the bench.  A McCants three makes it a four point lead with less than 10 left in the half.

9:21:  MSU's rebounding is dogging UNC, which I'm sure surprises a lot of people.  Just as soon Carolina gets some kind of leverage, MSU comes roaring back and starts hitting.  Sean May also seems fatigued by the pace of the game.  A 7-0 run puts MSU back on top, 27-25 with 5:39 left in the half.

Let get things started.

Louisville's bringing in the better coach and better front court, while Illinois is bringing the nation's best record and the best backcourt in the nation.

Tipoff's in a few minutes.

6:12:  Illinois starts out doing what they do best; working the perimeter.  In fact, they never feed it inside the arc in the first two possessions.  They hit their first two threes, but Louisville gets an inside layup and a three as well.  8-5 Illi.

6:20:  Louisville's plan is clear:  work the paint.  Play the post game, and control the boards.  The problem is, they're leaving themselves open the fast break transition, and Dee Brown made them pay for it with a three on the baseline.  13-9 Illinois.

6:31:  Illinois goes on a scoring drought, but Louisville simply can't capitalize.  The Cards are trying to execute too many complicated baskets in the paint, and can't hit anything outside.  They get within two, but Illinois's fast break once again gets them a basket.  Before that score Illinois went three minutes without one, but still maintained the lead.  19-15 Illinois with 9 minutes left in the half.

6:37:  Illinois is dead cold now, and they can't get anything going.  Meanwhile, Louisville still controlling the boards on both ends.  But they are getting a little too aggressive, and are racking up the fouls.  An O'Bannon three ties this game at 22 with 6:39 left in the half.

6:45:  Dee Brown is hot, and Francisco Garcia isn't.  In fact, Garcia is 1-7 from the field, which is hurting Louisville.  Dee Brown hit another three to regain their lead.  Louisville answers, but here's another three by Illi's Jack Ingram to lead by four with less than four minutes to go in the half.

6:53:  If Louisville ever starts hitting baskets, they'll take control of this game, because they're able to keep grabbing rebounds.  Lucky for them, the officials are calling the game their way. 

Luther Head gets wide open for a three, which gives Illinois their biggest lead.  Louisville gets a three point play on the other end, but other than that there isn't any considerable execution on either end.

Halftime.  Illinois 31, Louisville 28.  Louisville can't hit only one from the field in six minutes and expect to win this game.

7:25:  Both teams come out blasting, as O'Bannon comes out of the locker room with a three, and follows that with two fts to give Louisville their first lead of the game. 

But the spotlight then turns to Illi's Roger Powell, who hits a three, then comes back the next possession and dunks an offensive rebound off of a three pter he missed, and then hits another basket in the paint.  Someone btter get a hold of him.  Louisville is still hanging tough, though.  Illi leads 38-37.

7:31:  Powell keeps blasting, as he's hit Illinois's last 12 of 14 points.  I'm sure no one saw that.  I'm starting to like the offensive pace of both teams in this half.  Luther Head comes alive with a three.  Louisville needs to step up their perimeter defense.  48-44 Illinois with 12:08 left.

7:40:  Louisville isn't as effective on the boards with this zone as they were in the first half.  A few times there wasn't anyone under the basket trying to grab a rebound, and Illinois has had more sucess in the interior.  Louisville improves their shot selection, and can slash the boards.  Roger Powell is dominating the second half though.  52-49 Illini.

7:45:  Luther Head comes alive, hitting back to back from downtown.  Petino takes a timeout.  Methinks that's the last time we'll see a zone from Louisville in this game.  Illinois has their biggest lead, 58-49 with less than seven minutes left in the game.

7:51:  The clock is now running out on Louisville, as they have went scoreless in the last four and a half minutes.  This isn't a team that can put points on the board in a quick amount of time.  That's what they might have to do in order to get out of this margin.  61-51 Illinois with 5:17 left.

8:00:  Luther Head is turning the lights out, but Louisville isn't giving up hope yet.  It will take a strong defensive presence for them from here on out to come back from this deficit, and that's something we really haven't seen from them today.

If it was up to me, no college basketball team would ever play zone in the NCAA tournament.  I haven't seen an effective one yet.  Illinois leads comfortably after leading by as much of 13, 64-55 with 3:11 left.

8:07:  Well, you can't go on scoring droughts throughout the game like Louisville did and think you're going to win a basketball game of any kind.  It wasn't like Illinois put a ton of points on the board, or that they played great defense.  Louisville just couldn't put the ball in the hole.  Just way too many off shots throughout the game.

Meanwhile, Illinois stepped up and made adjustments, and that allowed Roger Powell and Luther Head to control the second half.  Once the 10:00 mark came, Louisville should have just walked out of the arena, because their performance was simply awful.

End of the game, and Illinois advances to the National Championship Game, 72-57.

North Carolina vs. Michigan State is next.  Click here to go to that post, which will be liveblogged as well.

I will be all over it.

So if you're at work but near a computer, stop on by.  More than likely I'll update every ten minutes after tipoff.  Even if you're watching it, stop in and take a look after the game to see how I called it, and don't be afraid to comment whether you agree or not.

I'll be ready.  Will you?

(Source:  AP/Yahoo)

I'm not a Catholic, but I haven't known another pope in my lifetime.  In fact, I was born four months before he became pope.

He is more than just a religious leader.  He is one of the most influential leaders of global politics, and he's traveled all over the world.  He stood up against Communism in his native country, Poland.  Of course, there's several times he's disagreed with American policies, but he's always been a man of principle and of conviction.  Just as I stated when Ronald Reagan died, this is a man who's lived a full life and deserves all of the blessings that are to be bestowed upon him in the afterlife.

When you look men like these, it can make you feel guilty, because those men oftentimes have done more good in one day than most of us do all of our lives.  The people they touch, the hope they've brought to the hopeless is unparalled.  You see thousands of people around the world holding vigils for the Pope, and then you say to yourself, "What have I done today?"

There have indeed been some men that aren't deserving of the praise they get in life or death.  But Pope John Paul II isn't one of them.  May his pain be light as he ends his majestic journey through life.

I was going to add this as an update to my previous Berger post, but this was too important to go unseen on my front page.

The Washington Post has the inside scoop of Sandy Berger's criminal act.  As part of the plea bargain, Sandy Berger admitted this:

Rather than misplacing or unintentionally throwing away three of the five copies he took from the archives, as the former national security adviser earlier maintained, he shredded them with a pair of scissors late one evening at the downtown offices of his international consulting business.

The document, written by former National Security Council terrorism expert Richard A. Clarke, was an "after-action review" prepared in early 2000 detailing the administration's actions to thwart terrorist attacks during the millennium celebration. It contained considerable discussion about the administration's awareness of the rising threat of attacks on U.S. soil.

Archives officials have said previously that Berger had copies only, and that no original documents were lost. It remains unclear whether Berger knew that, or why he destroyed three versions of a document but left two other versions intact. Officials have said the five versions were largely similar, but contained slight variations as the after-action report moved around different agencies of the executive branch.

The question is, how different were the variations?  Something interesting had to be on those documents for Berger to shred them.  Of course, we won't know what that is.  So much for it being an "honest mistake".

And what will Berger get for all of this?  A slap on the wrist:

Under terms negotiated by Berger's attorneys and the Justice Department, he has agreed to pay a $10,000 fine and accept a three-year suspension of his national security clearance.

Not surprised, but very disappointed.  Berger should be behind bars, and should never receive national security clearance ever again. 

I don't see why the Justice Department accepted a plea to begin with.  Berger was obviously guilty, and they were never going to see those missing documents again.  So what did the government get out of this?

I suppose Hindrocket's rant last night was right on the money.

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UPDATE:  I've been Instalanched.  Instapundit readers - or if you're being referred from somewhere else, as I've done quite a few trackbacks this morning - welcome, and I hope you'll click the "home" link at the bottom of the post and look at some of the other posts I've written this week.  Maybe some of you will become regular readers.

Previous posts:

1.  Sandy Berger is busted.

Well, at least there is one bright thing to happen in an otherwise sad day.  Clinton's former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger will plead guilty to taking classified documents from the National Archives.  He's expected to appear in federal court Friday.

I discussed this story last summer (see "Sandy Berger is busted" from my best posts on the sidebar).  Even to this day Berger has not brought back some of the materials that he stole from the National Archives last summer.  Berger took the notes and documents and placed them into his pockets and pants, which bore the name of the scandal, "TrouserGate".  At the time, Berger was an advisor to John Kerry.

Now I'm not stupid; it's very doubtful that Berger ever serves a lick of time in jail.  I want to know exactly what he took, however.  According to the AP, Berger took information "related" to a 2000 report on how the Clinton Administration reacted to terrorism prior to the millenium bombings.  I've always thought there was more to this story than we were being told.

Finally, the AP snuck this little tidbit in:

Many Democrats, including former President Clinton, suggested politics were behind disclosure of the probe only days before the release of the Sept. 11 commission report, which Republicans feared would be a blow to President Bush's re-election campaign.

Of course, this was nothing but a hollow accusation, but why should that stop the AP from mentioning it anyway?

But let's get one thing straight; the courts killed Terri Schiavo.

She didn't say she wanted to die, she didn't write she wanted to die, and there was nothing but hearsay evidence on the part of her "husband", his brother, and his brother's wife that she wanted to die.  She didn't kill herself. 

Thus, the courts killed her.  If you had placed the same type of evidence in a court trial, you wouldn't get a jury in the world to convict the defendant.  But, it was enough to kill an innocent woman.

The Associated Press reported last night that most Americans feel no nation should have nuclear weapons, including the United States.

Well, that has to suck for Iran, China, North Korea, France, Great Britain, Russia, etc.  After all, the polls have spoken, so that means they have to get rid of them now.  I'm sure Bush will announce his plan to get rid of our nukes by the end of this week.  Israel will have to give up theirs too, leaving them even more vulnerable in the Middle East.

But seriously folks, what's the point of conducting these polls?  The media take them for face value, as if the standard poll taker knows precisely how dangerous our foreign rivals are.  Even if they did, it will do nothing to change the global political landscape.  Despots don't care about the concerns of the masses; that's what made them despots in the first place. 

This is the continuation of a trend that places public opinion polls over laws, policies, and principles.  Ignore the fact that these questions are often loaded, and are conducted by media groups themselves (this poll was conducted by the AP) for a second.  The media, among others, think public policy should reflect the opinion polls.  Too bad it doesn't work that way.

There is only one true poll, and that's an election.  That's when you actually find out which policies the people support, and which policies they don't support.  Everything else is just a false-face for the true voice of the people.

Last night Josh Claybourn admitted he may have been hoaxed on a story he broke Friday fingering one of the staffers from Harry Reid's office:

Late Friday evening I posted the accusations of four supposed Senate staffers who claimed a Democratic aide had distributed the "GOP" talking points memo. I now have reason to believe that in unraveling a hoax I was hoaxed myself. I haven't been able to confirm a Sen. Reid aide was the source and barring more conclusive evidence I have removed the accused's name from the original post out of fairness and accuracy. Those who made the accusations are nowhere to be found. Sen. Reid's office labels the accusation "completely ridiculous" and Sen. Santorum's office would not officially confirm or deny it, saying the investigation was "up to you, the bloggers, and the media."