When I was in college, one of the best classes I ever took was “Reporting and Editing For Television News.” Sure part of the reason I enjoyed the class was because my professor was one of those creepy dudes in his 40’s, who acted like he was 26, and was always trying to get a little too cozy with the female students. Still, that was only a part of it.

Overall it was entertaining class, and one of the things I remember the professor constantly harping on was, “Shoot everything!!” In other words, when you’re on the scene of a potential news story, shoot as much camera footage as you can. Because really, you never know what pieces and video might end getting used later on down the road.

And when it comes to this website, I use the “Shoot everything,” motto as well. If I’m ever at a sporting event that I know I’ll be writing about, I try to take as many notes as possible. I just never know what will end up making for interesting stories or anecdotes for my articles.

In the case of this past week’s Final Four, that was definitely true. When I got home Tuesday, I had a notebook full of all kinds of fun nuggets that I planned on using in the article I wrote Wednesday. Stuff on my travels, on people I met, on everything.  But unfortunately for whatever reason, those stories just didn’t fit.

So then the question became, what to do with all those little nuggets? Toss them? Nah. Instead I decided to put together this “Final Four Odds and Ends,” article, with everything that just didn’t have a place in what I’d already written.  

Understand that these stories have no correlation to one and other, and no correlation to anything really. But I thought they were fun and interesting enough to share here.

Enjoy.

The 2011 Final Four is now officially in the books!

Overall the tournament will be remembered for a lot of things (Butler's awful play, the end of Matt Howard's never-ending career, Jim Calhoun's third title, Jim Nantz using 37 dog references in a two minute span), but what it will ultimately be remembered for is one thing: The first ever Aaron Torres Sports Picture Show!

That's right, I understand that all of you don't have the time, energy or interest to read my 3,000 word recap of the event, and honestly why would you? Especially when there's lots of shiny pictures to look at!

Either way enjoy. And if you want any of these pictures printed, and autographed by yours truly, feel free to e-mail me your credit card number and address, and I'll get them out in the mail sometime in the next 6-8 business weeks.

Enjoy!

HOUSTON- When UConn won Saturday night’s Final Four semifinal, I just knew I’d be in Reliant Stadium for Monday night’s National Championship Game. I didn’t know how I’d get to Houston. Or where I’d find the tickets. Just that I’d be there. It was a surreal feeling, and reminded me of one of those wedding shows on TLC that you stumble across, and see some some bright-eyed girl in her late 20’s say, “The second I just met Jason, I just knew he was the one.” That was me Saturday night. I just knew.

Now understand that the whole trip was about more than basketball to me. Yes I’m a UConn fan. Yes I went to the school. And yes, I’m wildly spoiled by everything the program has done over the past two decades. But it wasn’t about that. Being in Houston Monday night was about this team in specific.

As I’ve mentioned many times before (and I’m sorry, but it needs to be repeated), this is the type of team that as a fan, you hope to root for just once or twice in your life. They were the ultimate blue-collar, hard-hat, “sum is greater than the parts,” group. Nobody cared about stats and minutes, not any more than wins and losses anyway. Being a fan of this specific team, and getting to watch the team all year was like being a computer nerd who wakes up one day and finds himself dating a supermodel. You know eventually things probably won’t work out as you hope. But you still want to enjoy the ride while it lasts.

Beyond that, maybe the coolest part of the whole 2011 UConn Huskies season was how outsiders began to view this team. The rivals that used to hate UConn, hate Jim Calhoun’s outbursts, and hate the swagger the program walked around with, all of a sudden came full circle. I can’t tell you how cool it was to hear Louisville, Syracuse and Kentucky fans tell me all March, “Once my team got knocked out, I’ve been rooting for you guys. I don’t know what it is, but there’s just something about them that I just love.” It’s hasn't been often that UConn is the scrappy underdog that's somehow relatable, yet that's exactly what they were this year.

So now hopefully you can understand why I decided to go to Houston. It wasn’t just about a basketball team, because really, basketball teams come and go. It was about this team in specific. It was because I realized that if 15 guys could sacrifice so much over the course of six months, the least I could do was sacrifice three days and a whole bunch of money I didn’t have for them. In a weird way, I feel like they’d do the same for me (Corny, I know).

No seriously, it's happening. I don't know how or why, or if I'll ever be able to pay off my credit card bill, but once UConn won last night my decision was final: I don't care how I get to Houston, be it by plane, train or dog sled, I wasn't missing Monday night's championship game. You just never know when you'll get to see your team play for a title ever again.

So what can you expect from Aaron Torres Sports over the next few days? Honestly, I'm not sure. I get into Houston late Sunday night, and it really is touch and go from that point. I'd like to post a preview on Monday and a recap Tuesday with videos and pictures in between, but really, it's impossible to say what's realistic. Right now I don't even have tickets to the game, so trying to figure out if I'll have internet access and posting ability is a whole other animal. As a matter of fact, if anything, just go ahead and stay tuned on Twitter. I'll try to post as many pictures there, as instantaneously as I can.

On a different note, I want to thank each and every one of you for supporting me, and my team this March. All the tweets, and congratulatory emails mean more than you'll ever know. When I started Aaron Torres Sports, I hoped to create a community of friends and followers through this site, and this month, that's exactly what I feel like I've done. You guys have all been unbelievable. I genuinely mean that.

Anyway, I don't know if or when I'll be corresponding, but I promise, this isn't the last you've heard from me.

See you from Houston!

There’s no right way to start this article. Believe me, I’ve tried.

I’ve tried to be funny and serious. Sarcastic and stupid. Light-hearted and with an edge. But there’s nothing, no words in our beautiful English language which can describe how I feel right now. UConn will be playing for a National Championship Monday night, and I, Aaron Torres am speechless. Ask anyone who knows me, and they’ll tell you that doesn’t happen often.

Now understand, the road to get here wasn’t easy. It came with a bunch of pot holes that I’ve already mentioned a million times, and really don’t need to repeat. You already know plenty about them: The midseason struggles this past winter. The NCAA sanctions which were smacked down on the school in February. The health of Jim Calhoun, which has fluctuated like the weather over the last couple years. And I haven’t even mentioned some team named Kentucky, that the Huskies had to play on Saturday night.

Speaking of Kentucky, this article is bittersweet, if only because I love that program nearly as much as I love my own. Starting with their fans, I won’t let anyone say a damn bad word about them. Yes Big Blue Nation is zany, but truthfully, they’ll be the first to fess up to that zaniness, and admit that yes maybe, they care about their team a little too much. If you don’t believe me, I’ve got a bunch of e-mails in my inbox that admit to just that.

At the same time, you know what else the folks in Kentucky are? Some of the most kind and sincere people I’ve ever dealt with. I can’t tell you how many e-mailed me this week just to wish me luck heading into Saturday’s game. Some did it in 20 words, and some did it in 2,000 words, but it’s just that which makes Kentucky fans so darn fun. Nobody loves their school, and nobody loves basketball more than they do. As far as I’m concerned, we should all strive to care about our team that much.

And on the court Saturday night, they once again had something to be proud of. Understand that this Wildcats team was hardly the most talented since the school’s last Final Four trip in 1998. Really, they're not even the most talented of the last two years. If the 2010 squad played the 2011 squad in shirts and skins, it’d be a massacre. Patrick Patterson, DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall would’ve worked this group like a speed bag.

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One of the most underrated parts of having a wildly unpredictable Final Four, is how tough it makes it on us writers. Wait, I’m supposed to have an opinion on Saturday’s games? Geez! Doesn’t anyone ever think of us anymore?

Honestly, I’ve never been more torn heading into a Final Four weekend, in large part because I would’ve never guessed in a million years that any of these four teams would be here. I watched UConn all season, and gave up on them as actual contenders sometime in mid-February. As I explained in my column Monday, I just never saw “it,” with Kentucky, at least not until super-late in the season. In regards to Butler, well, I would’ve been less surprised seeing the UConn women’s team playing in Houston Saturday night than these guys. And VCU…forget about it. I couldn’t even spell VCU three weeks ago. Although in my defense, the spelling is tougher than it looks.

Yet incredibly, here we are, with one of these four teams’ just 72-ish hours away from taking home a national title. Only in America. Only in March.

Here’s who I think will be playing for the title Monday.

If you’re a regular reader of this site, you know that Kentucky basketball program will always have a very special place in my heart.

For those of you who aren’t quite sure what I’m talking about, let me give you a quick recap.

My whole wild ride with Kentucky fans started two December’s ago, when UConn and Kentucky played a highly memorable game at Madison Square Garden, in what turned out to be an otherwise forgettable UConn season. I was there, and while I’d heard stories of “Big Blue Nation,” in the past, I wasn’t totally prepared for what I saw that night, as the Garden became “Rupp Arena North.” UConn may have lost, but as a sports fan, I had nothing but instantaneous respect for a fan base that could fill up a neutral court arena, on a weekday night, for a non-conference game. That level of fandom was only verified with the correspondence I got after writing the article on that game. E-mails poured in, everyone thanking me for sharing the experience with them.

I followed up that article with this one, after Kentucky lost in last year’s Elite Eight to West Virginia. With UConn having such a treacherous season, I had sort of embraced Kentucky as the de-facto team to follow, and seeing them get knocked out of the NCAA Tournament made me feel terrible for everyone involved with the program. I felt bad for the players and Coach Calipari, but I really felt bad for the fans. Looking back, Kentucky fans reflect on last year’s team a lot like UConn fans do about their own this year: It wasn't about the winning and losing as much as just enjoying the ride. Kentucky fans weren’t upset that they weren’t going to win a championship that night, as much as they were just disappointed that their season was coming to an end.

I’ve spent the last half hour trying to figure out how to start this column, and the best I can come up with is this: I cannot believe I’m still writing about UConn basketball at this point in the season. Amongst everything that I consider feasible on this planet, the idea that I’m still talking about Jim Calhoun, Kemba Walker and the Huskies, ranks somewhere just above, “The Cleveland Indians winning the World Series,” and just below, “Jennifer Aniston actually being attracted to David Schwimmer on the TV show Friends.”

Then again, that last analogy isn’t far off as it might seem. Yes Friends is just a TV show. It’s fiction. But to continue the parallel with UConn basketball, it does kind of seem fitting. That’s because while UConn fans might argue about a lot of things, there’s something everyone is in agreement with: This season doesn’t seem real.

And it really doesn’t seem real, when you think back and consider all the dark places UConn basketball has been since their last Final Four run in 2009. Because to understand where UConn is today, you’ve got to understand where they’ve been. And believe me when I say, it isn’t pretty.

I know I say this around the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament every year, but… I’m not here to talk about the past. Or at least not about my bracket.

Once again, it's a disaster.

Yes, I may have had Pitt in the Final Four. And sure I may have believed that things would be different with Texas and Notre Dame this year, and that Purdue wasn’t some offensive albatross, but in fact a team that could advance deep in the tournament. And no, I didn't see VCU or Richmond coming. But just like I used to say to say to my ex-girlfriend all the time, “I was wrong.” There, are you happy? Kidding.

But despite taking it on the chin last weekend, that doesn’t mean that I’m afraid to make picks for this weekend’s games. Quite the opposite actually.

Now, will they have more merit by the end of this weekend than my previous picks? If my track record is any indication, I’d say not.

Still, let’s have some fun, starting with…

A whole heck of a lot of stuff happened in this weekend's NCAA Tournament games. Great games, poor shot selection, and some of the worst end of game decision making I can ever remember.

Here are some lingering thoughts, from my head, to your computer:

The Big East: I’m going to start by taking a controversial stand right away (That’s always fun, right?). Here goes. The Big East is not overrated. Not even close. Crazy, I know.

Now based on what happened this weekend, I think you could make a pretty compelling argument against me. Eleven teams entered, and nine teams were eliminated, with the only two who advanced (UConn and Marquette) doing so by beating fellow Big East clubs. In all, the teams which finished in the top eight in the Big East regular season all lost this weekend, including the only No. 1 seed to go down (Pitt) and the only No. 2 seed (Notre Dame), with Syracuse, Louisville, St. John’s and Georgetown all losing to lower seeded teams. Again, it’s hard to argue the Big East’s merits right now. But I’m going to anyway.

Because remember, for all the talk about the conference being overrated, the only tangible measurement we really have to rank conferences in the regular season, is how they perform out of conference play. It’s wins and losses there that drive strength of schedule, RPI, and every other goofy metric we use to put teams in the NCAA Tournament. It's also given Joe Lunardi quite an interesting career arc.

Anyway, remember that the only reason the Big East had so many highly ranked teams heading into the tournament, is because of what they did against everyone else outside the conference. Looking quickly across the board, remember that UConn beat Kentucky, Michigan State and Texas, all on either neutral courts or in true road games. Notre Dame beat Wisconsin, Georgia and Gonzaga. Villanova beat UCLA and Temple. Georgetown beat Missouri in Missouri, and Old Dominion at their place. And the list goes on. West Virginia beat Purdue. St. John’s beat Duke. Syracuse beat both Michigan and Michigan State on neutral courts.