March Madness starts today, and goes ALL DAY.  By now, you have your tourney picks selected, and are hopefully already doing well in your office pool.  Meanwhile, with all this college basketball fever, we forget that the NBA is still in full swing, and things are really heating up.

NBA

The Houston Rockets are trying to make a claim that they are ALSO a team to beat in the West.  When you think of who will come out of the Western Conference, your first thought is the Lakers, second, the Spurs, and third the Jazz.  But Houston is having a pretty great season, and Yao Ming has finally turned into the force that everyone thought he would be.  Last night vs. Detroit, Yao was the hero with 31 points and 15 rebounds, as the Rockets defeated the Pistons in double-overtime.  Sure, the Pistons aren’t the team they used to be, but the important item is that Yao is ready to carry this team on his back.  When he plays well, the whole team plays well.   And with his leadership, the Rockets could be an underdog pick to make the finals.  Houston 106, Detroit 101.

Elsewhere in the NBA, another overtime duel between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat.  The best guy for the Heat is usually Dwayne Wade, but in his absence, the Heat turned to their rookie, Mario Chalmers.  For those who don’t remember Chalmers, now is the perfect time to bring him up.  He was Kansas’ hero of last year’s NCAA Championship game, hitting an amazing fadeaway 3 pointer to tie the game and send it into overtime.  Heading into OT, Kansas had all the momentum, and won their first NCAA Title in 20 years.  He will forever be immortalized in Jayhawk-ville.  And last night, he was ‘the man’ for the Heat with 19 points and 9 assists, allowing the Wade-less Heat to hang around with the defending champs.  However, the Celtics were just too strong in OT, and behind Paul Pierce’s 36 points, the Celtics held on for the win.  Boston 112, Miami 108.

NFL

A little bit of worrisome (not scary) news for the Arizona Cardinals.  Their QB, Kurt Warner, had to have arthroscopic hip surgery.  Sure, surgery always sounds terrifying for any NFL player, but this one is routine, and was just done to “repair a torn labrum and clean up some loose fragments”, said a team doctor.  Even Warner said he felt fine, but if you’re a Cardinals fan, you have to be at least a little concerend that the QB you just signed to a gigantic 2-year deal… needed surgery.  Then again, at this time last year, Arizona fans had nothing to worry about at all.  Why?  Because their team was irrelevent.