Will it be the Gaotors or Bruins Tonight? Why Maryland will hate Duke even more after Tuesday. Duke Lacrosse comments. And Opening Day for the Phils.

After my dazzling 0-2 performance on Saturday in the Final Four, I am guessing that you are tuning in to see who you should bet against today. Billy Donovan and Ben Howland have each offered substantial sums asking me to pick against their respective squads in tonight's match-up. I, of course, in the spirit of integrity, declined, and have come up with a pick based on my wealth of knowledge.

Florida has clearly looked like champions all tournament long. They will have the best player on the court tonight in Joakim Noah, and the most versatile, athletic player in the game in Corey Brewer. But UCLA plays the better defense, and in my opinion (I recognize that Billy D. has his share of supporters out there too), I think Ben Howland is the better of the two coaches. When you combine those factors with an edge in the backcourt with Jordan Farmar and Arron Afflalo, and a versatile swingman in Cedric Bozeman, I expect the Bruins to cut down the Nets in the Hossier Dome. UCLA 68, Florida 61.

On the ladies side of the brackets, the Lady Devils did what their counterparts in the men's tourney could not: beat LSU. With the win, the Lasy Devils advance to the finals to play a young, talented Maryland team. This should just feed the Terp fans with more venom and hatred toward Duke, when Monique Currie and the Lady Devils win the first ever National Championship in Women's Basketball.

Speaking of Duke, the University is getting lambasted by all sides for how they have handled the Duke Lacrosse situation. As an alumnus who is very concerned about this situation, I am proud of the way my school has handled this terrible situation. I am not sure what more people would like to see the University do proactively. We do still live in America where people are innocent until proven guilty, so they cannot exactly just start throwing people out of school. In the meantime, they have suspended the lax season indefinitely pending the investigation and what it yields. I applaud President Broadhead and how he is handling a very delicate situation.

As for the claims of poor relations between the Duke and Durham communities, that is in fact true now, and it has been true for the past 20 years at least. But if you examine Duke's commitment to the community and what it has done to support Durham, I feel confident that you will find that there has always been a strong level of support. Could it have done more things to supoport the local community? Of course. There are always more ways that an entity can help the commnuity. Has Duke always acted in a responsible and supportive manner? Absolutely. I would proudly put Duke and its record as a good local citizen against any other universities out there.

Any time you get two distinct groups from different socio-economic classes (Duke costs as much per year as the average household income in Durham is), there are bound to be natural tensions. No matter how many initiatives Duke develops, no matter how much the students and faculty reach out to the community, there will always be tensions. Duke and Durham have managed to co-exist despite these very real differences, but when a heinous crime such as this allegedly occurs, the house of cards that has been in place for a long time can come crumbling down in an instant.

I am hopeful that the lacrosse team will be exonerated, but my guess is that will not happen, based on all the information we have seen on the case. If there is guilt, Duke will need strong leadership to manage the many complex issues that it will face in the immediate future. I, for one, am confident that we have the right administration in pace to deal with these delicate and difficult issues. Stay tuned....

And, finally, baseball starts today. The Phillies had a great spring, led by better than expected performances from Gavin Floyd and Ryan Madon as the 4th and 5th starters, along with a huge sign from Ryan Howard that there will be no sophomore slump. If those three cogs hold up, and everybody else statys healthy and does what they are supposed to, they could win this division and make some noise this season. Let's hope so! And let's hope Jimmy Rollins gets it all started with a hit today, extending his streak to 37 straight.