The birth of a child is always a huge and very important event in the family’s life. Parents are waiting for long nine month to see a smiling face that is very similar to theirs. It makes parent’s heart beating more intense and it overfills with the tenderness, love and caress. Everything changes when a mommy with a small smiling baby steps into the house. From this moment the life of the whole family changes – everyone takes care of a baby that brings a lot of happiness for each family member.

    The first sounds that child makes, the first eructation, the first steps and the first teeth – with all these small but marvelous doings moms want to share with the whole world. Fortunately, nowadays mothers have a chance to show everyone how their children grow and what they are learning during the first years of their lives. Then, another question pops up: what is a best way to share with other mommies how their child grows up? Easy!

    Nowadays the web can offer a big variety of choices for mothers. With the popularity on baby-blogs and forums more and more moms share their child’s development process with their friends. Using widgets can significantly simplify the process of tracking the child’s growth in a fun way. With this Baby Growth Chart Widget mothers can save themselves some time and be more organised. Moreover, we all know that most blogs with cool and remarkable features tend to be more popular than ones without them. So why hesitate?

    If you want to share how your pretty little baby is growing up – start doing it right now. It is easy to register on the web-page www.babyalculators.com and start using it. The website is very simple to use – mommy can choose the American or European measuring system, all the information mommies are keeping in their blog can be printed or saved as an image. Moreover, it uses international standards developed by the World Health Organization.

Who Coined the Term March Madness?

There are tons of sports websites of the collegiate, high-school and pro variety with varying claims to fame on who first coined the term March Madness. Some say it was Henry V. Porter of the Illinois High School Association in an essay he wrote entitled “March Madness” in the Illinois Interscholastic in 1939.

Others tout it was coined in 1982 by Chicago sportswriter Brent Musberger as he called the tournament. From its origins with only eight teams to the 68 teams who play for the championship today, this American staple continues to wow us.

NCAA Facts and Stats

Of the 1,300 active college teams eligible, only around 1,062 compete for the big prize. The 68 treasured spots are chosen by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee and of those 68 teams, 31 spots are held for the well-known and the proven. The other 37 teams fall into the Cinderella Darlings category as fans root them on with each leg.

The NCAA Committee uses certain criteria to choose teams including winning percentages, home vs. away game performance and placements within each conference. As teams win and teams dwindles, we hear terms like the Sweet Sixteen, the Elite Eight and the Final Four—all reaching for the coveted trophy.

With this popular month-long nothing but net event, there are some fan fanatics.

March Fan Frenzy

During the month of March, some fans have done the weird and the unusual:

• Fans spend 75 minutes or more completing their March Madness brackets; women, however, top out at 45 minutes.
• Fans are spending a whopping $100 million on Las Vegas bets but with legal (and illegal) betting, that number is guesstimated at 13 billion each spring.
• One in six people will call off work to watch an NCAA game and seven percent of workers are disciplined for watching games at the office.
• Fans of the North Carolina Tar Heels buy more team gear than any other team (Ohio State fans may disagree!)
• 65 Percent of IT professionals are on-call to stop live streaming of games at work computers.

Betting and Winning on March Madness

There is a method behind the madness of March basketball. One is obtaining an official March Madness Mayhem bracket form.

Next the research begins. That means looking at win percentages, home and away performances and injuries. Many websites dedicated to March Madness offer resource tools to aid in your picks and it’s never prudent to let your heart choose the winner.

Experts also say to win big during March Madness betting you need to bet on more than just one leg of the tourney. The longer you stay in, the more you can win and many online betting venues allow for bets as small as a few dollars—or you can choose the office contest.

Consider participating in a March Madness contest to sweeten your chances of getting to the tournament for the price of nothing. March Madness is here to stay so get your fan gear, download your brackets, pick your winners and get ready to watch and enjoy these fast-paced games.

Article Submitted by Miles Young

Coach Howland decided to let the cat out of the bag when asked about the future of his freshman powerforward. Howland’s response:

“This wasn’t meant to be an announcement for Shabazz,” Howland later said with a smile. “I’m just being honest. … Just keeping it real.“

Got to love the fact he used the phrase keeping it real.

1. New York Knicks

Average age: 32

Oldest player: Kurt Thomas, 40

The New York Knicks not only have the oldest roster in the NBA, the team has the oldest roster in NBA history. Kurt Thomas, at 40, is the oldest player in the league. Jason Kidd, who will turn 40 in March, isn’t far behind him.

Despite an elderly line up (in pro sports terms, at least), they won over 65 percent of their games in the 2012-2013 conference regular season (as of mid-February), putting them second in the Eastern Conference. Not bad for a bunch of old guys.

2. San Antonio Spurs

Average age: 27.93

Oldest player: Tim Duncan, 36

The San Antonio Spurs have six players who are 30 or over. Head coach Gregg Popovich says that he monitors how many minutes all of his players stay in the game. Young or old, they’re all playing on the clock.

Tim Duncan, the oldest player on the team, usually spends a little under 30 minutes on the court. Ginobli (35) and Jackson (34) usually get a few more minutes than Duncan. The other players 30 and over are Tony Parker (30), Boris Diaw (30), and Matt Bonner (32). Despite their aging roster, they are the top of the Western Conference. Who wouldn’t take a pair of San Antonio Spurs tickets to see those old guys run circles around newbies?

3. Miami Heat

Average age: 29.52

Oldest player: Ray Allen, 37

The Miami Heat has 9 players 30 and over. There are just too many to name. (Even LeBron James (28) is creeping towards the 30-year-old mark. He still goes out and gets at it like he’s a teenager.) With an average age of 29.52, they’re not far from the Knicks in terms of elderly players.

The interest thing is that the Heat, just like the Knicks and Spurs, are at the top of their conference. It seems that experience really does have an impact on how team members communicate with each other and execute their highly practiced skills.

4. Boston Celtics

Average age: 28.46

Oldest player: Kevin Garnett, 36

The Boston Celtics have a rather aging roster. The 36-year-old Kevin Garnett has good company with Paul Pierce (35) and Jason Terry (35). The 30-and-over crowd also includes Leandro Barbosa (30), Jason Collins (34), and Chris Wilcox (30).

The Celtics aren’t tearing up their conference like the other teams, but they’re holding their own. Considering that they share a conference with the Heat, it’s not surprising that they’re a bit lower in the ranks. Still, they’ve won 54 percent of their games. That’s pretty impressive for a bunch of old guys.

These pro basketball players might have crossed the 30-year-old line, but they’re still out there getting the job done. Do you think you could win a heads-up game with any of these 40-year-olds? Seriously, though, what stars would you like to see come out of retirement to really shift the averages?

In December, seven Big East basketball schools – DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, and Villanova – announced they had voted to unanimously withdraw from the conference amid uncertainty over the future of the league in this day and age of realignment.

Those seven schools will be taking the Big East name with them when they start their new league next basketball season, according to a report from ESPN.com.

Full Story: http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/28/catholic-7-taking-the-big-east-name-with-it/

A lot of rivalries are going to change but it is good to see Villanova, Georgetown, Providence etc. stick together with the branding. The football schools will look much like the Conference USA with the addition of East Carolina, Tulane, etc. so maybe it’s best the Big East football history is put in the vault.

Now let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We are talking about Michael Jeffrey Jordan the skinny kid from Wilmington who could leap out the gym and had a knack for scoring, who eventually became the six-time champion we all know. That’s who Victor Oladipo is being compared to.

Even Magic Johnson said “To me, he’s a combination of [Michael] Jordan and Dwyane Wade.”

Is the comparison fair?

He has the tools but what made Jordan great was his defensive tenacity and penchant to play, excuse me, EXCEL through pain. There have been many great scorers to play in the league: Vince Carter, Penny Hardaway, Kobe, Lebron, Durant. But there is a reason there is only and ever will be one Jordan.

Oladipo might look the part but Jordan told us, it isn’t as easy as it looks to be the next MJ:

photo credit: Indiana Public Media

Smith is getting interest from the Boston Celtics who are likely offering Jeff Green, but word is that the Hawks have their eye on a deal with the Milwaukee Bucks. Why might you ask? Well, because they can get Monta Ellis in return who is one of the leagues best pure scorers when healthy.

The trade deadline is approaching in a few days so we’ll see if this pans out. Monta might just be on his way to the ATL!

photo credit: Keith Allison via cc

That’s why this story is gaining steam. Could MJ really be planning an NBA return at age 50? He did say and I quote, “don’t be surprised if you look up and see me playing at age 50. Don’t laugh.”

Jordan seemed like he was dead serious when he said that and according to reports is looking to get back down to his playing weight. He is even taking on rookies on his Bobcats squad like Michael Kidd-Gilchrist…. and winning.

“It was hard for me,” Kidd-Gilchrist said before playing in the Rising Stars Challenge rookie-sophomore game Friday night. “I lost. He’s the greatest man that ever played the game.

“Oh, yeah. He’s good.”

USA Today

Could MJ really be plotting the comeback of all comebacks? We’ll see.

While they are labeled as “one and done” they are still kids trying to achieve a dream. We don’t have to get into the many reasons that this type of incident is unfortunate, Nerlens Noel isn’t getting paid to play and already suffered a huge setback.

Modern medicine is getting better but a knee injury is still a knee injury. It won’t be until well after the NBA Draft and probably until after his rookie season that we see how this injury slows him down. Noel is still getting picked top 10 don’t get it confused but he’s going to be slowed down at least for his rookie year.

If you have the stomach to watch knee injuries check out the video below:

HT: BSO

Well, according to sources they may have to wait a little longer. Rose’s return is not imminent:

Derrick Rose has no target date for his debut this season, adding that he won’t return until he’s 110 percent.

“I don’t have a set date,” he said. “I’m not coming back until I’m 110%. Who knows when that can be? It can be within a couple of weeks. It could be next year. It could be any day. It could be any time. It’s just that I’m not coming back until I’m ready.” Rose said that “right now” he’s “probably in the high 80s” when asked to give a percentage, adding that he is “far away” from a return. Rose is expected to return this season, but it’s looking more and more likely his absence could creep all the way into March.