Just when it looked like things were looking up for the athletic department of one of the nation’s largest Christian universities, freshman phenom Brittney Griner goes and makes a punching bag out of an opposing center’s face.

Can’t Baylor University catch a break?

Before Brittney landed her right fist on Jordan Barncastle’s nostril, it’s been the kind of year the Baylor Bear boosters have been praying for to further distance their program from one of the most nightmarish scandals to ever plague a program.

The men have been winning and playing well enough this season under the tutelage of March Madness hero Bryce Drew’s brother Scott to make LaceDarius Dunn and Ekpe Udoh household names in Big 12 country.

Brittney Griner, meanwhile, has elevated the women’s program and the entire school’s viral marketing efforts with her 6-foot-8-made-for-YouTube-frame that until recently didn’t require any consults with the university relations department of the 14,000-student university with the “for the church, for Texas” motto.

As you may have already seen from the video, it’s an absolutely ugly and indefensible act that unfortunately is capturing the kind of media attention a female dunking machine never will. As is usually the case when someone represents a Christian institution the fallout and scrutiny will likely be even worse.

Perhaps it would be best for us to all say a prayer for Brittney and be reminded in our own way less of a fishbowl lives to the words of The Message translation of Proverbs 14:29: “a quick-tempered person stockpiles stupidity.”

A while back PFB Founder Bryan Allain wrote about his resemblance to Andy Roddick and how he looks enough like the tennis star to be confused for him in airports.

I’m not a big tennis guy, but I am glued to ESPN360 whenever the Kansas Jayhawks play and for some reason whenever I see Jayhawk center Cole Aldrich play I think of Bryan (someone I’ve seen in person exactly twice, by the way).

Bryan, of course, isn’t 6-foot-11 and on his way to riding the bench in the NBA (Cole hasn’t exactly been playing like an NBA starter to be this season on the offensive end). But Bryan did mysteriously lose a tooth around the same time Aldrich did as this photo I definitely did not Photoshop shows:

Note: If you aren’t already a regular reader, do yourself a favor and visit/bookmark Bryan Allain’s blog at www.bryanallain.com.

For me, this week is the best week on the sports calendar.

NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship – check

Opening Day for Baseball – check

The Masters – check

Basketball, hockey, and NASCAR for those who are inclined – check

Ditto for the Women’s NCAA basketball championship – check

A person from Czechoslovakia is called a – Czech

I’m sure that die hard football fans will fight me on this one, arguing that the Best Sportsweek of the year HAS to include the best sport we have.

It’s a valid point, but I’d counter that NFL fans at least have the Draft to look forward to in a couple of weeks. That means you’ll get to see Mel Kiper’s hair on Sportscenter at least once this week. (and yes, the Best Sportsweek of the year HAS to include Mel’s hair.)

So, are you on board with me?

If not, what’s your favorite sports week of the year? First week of college football? First week of the NFL season or the NFL playoffs? First week of the NCAA Tourney? Let us know…

(…coming later this week, the PFB MLB 2009 prediction piece…enjoy the games!)

a few things to check out while you rank shortstops for your upcoming fantasy draft…

+ Cleveland State Coach Gary Waters is coming across as a modern day Moses, and apparently he’s made believers out of his staff: “God sent Moses to free Israel. God sent Gary Waters to resurrect Cleveland State,” assistant coach Jayson Gee said. How does the team break huddles, you ask? “One, two, three – submit!” Not kidding.

+ Some Catholics are upset that the Detroit Tigers home opener is on Good Friday at 1pm. “It’s like Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday rolled into one,” said Michael Ochab, 47, a Hamtramck Catholic who will skip Opening Day for the first time in 20 years. Wow, I never realized Catholics had so much fun at baseball games. And here I just usually go to watch baseball.

+ DID YOU KNOW: Only Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon are exempt from a federal sports-betting ban because they had a form of sports betting when the law was enacted. Because of this loophole, the governor of Delaware has proposed a sports lottery to help make money for the First State. Says Bob Simpson, associate executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware:

“I am well aware of the dramatic change that has occurred within American culture. I get that we as Bible-believing Christians are swimming upstream on most things related to both faith and family values,” Simpson said. “But it just seems to me that, in spite of what the pro-gambling folks tell us, more good could come if we solidly defeat any and all gambling initiatives.”

+ We’ve added our 41st member to the PFB Member Party! Welcome Tyler B, a fan of the Minnesota Twins.

If you’d like to be a member, and sound off on sports related topics throughout the year, send a headshot and your favorite team to prayersforblowouts(at)gmail.com. Membership is as free as Michael Vick will be in a few months.

Friday night’s finishes were amazing, weren’t they? Can’t get enough of those season-ending buzzer beaters.

One of the guys we were with noticed an angry security guard ripping the John 3:16 sign out of the one dude’s hands behind the Siena bench. Apparently someone else noticed it too, and posted the video.

I want to know…nay, everyone wants to know. What does your bracket look like after Day 1?

I went an impressive 15 for 16. (Losing only Butler, who I did not have in my Sweet 16). Puts my entry, The Great and Powerful Schnoz, atop the leaderboard after 24 hours.

Oh, and you know what? This is probably a good time to remind everyone who won the Burnside Brackets last year:

(pay no attention to that 9th place finish in baseball and last place finish in football last year…I focused all my energy on winning my baseball keeper league)

Moving on…here’s a few thoughts from the handful of minutes I watched on Thursday…

+ Memphis won’t win another game until November unless they pick it up.

+ If you thought Gonzaga was just a name, you were wrong. They’ll give UNC a run for their money if they meet.

+ Duke got a break yesterday with a Binghamton team that was playing like they ate Ephedra before tipoff.

+ I’d put even money on any of those 4 lower East Region teams to make it to the Great 8. UCLA, Nova, Duke, and Texas all have strengths and flaws. (though right now I’d give the edge to Duke).

+ Watching the games online on March Madness On Demand is pretty amazing. I checked it out yesterday at work just to see what it was like and was amazed.

So let’s hear it, how many out of 16 do you have right so far?

(and if you’ve got multiple brackets, give us your best one)

And if you have any other insights on the games, please share for those of us who didn’t watch all the action…

I have to admit something to you. March Madness isn’t what it once used to be for me. I know, I know…I’m sorry. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

You see, when I was in college, few things were more important to me than college hoops. In fact, I remember getting a copy of the USA Today early in the 96-97 school year solely because they had printed a schedule of every game that would be on television during the upcoming season. I remember cutting it out of the paper and tacking it onto the frame of my lofted bed, then copying all the games down into a notebook just so I could have a second, more portable, copy. (and I claimed to never have time for homework. yeah, right.)

Of course, while I was involved in this monumental waste of time, my roommate Matt happened to see that I was up to something and asked me what I was up to. “Ummm…making a second copy of the college basketball TV schedule,” I said, trying to make it sound like thousands of other students across the country were doing the exact same, completely normal, thing. “What the heck are you doing that for?” he asked. I had no good answer. “Have you even read your Bible today,” he asked me piously. (Okay, maybe it wasn’t piously, but it felt like it at the time). “Ummm…No, not really,” I said as I put the notebook away. Pious or not, he had a point.

My love for College Basketball and the tournament was still going strong almost 5 years later. It was the first day of the Tournament in March 2001 and life as a college student was in the rear view mirror. Like much of the American workforce, Matt and I were stuck at our desks, staring at the CBS Sports online scoreboard. Streaming video of the games was nothing more than a pipe dream at that point, but CBS was at least streaming audio of the games online. Unfortunately for Matt, his company’s web filters had blocked the audio. Fortunately for Matt, they couldn’t block me. For 90 minutes I sat at my desk – earbud in my left ear, phone stuck to my right ear, giving Matt hushed play by play of all the close finishes. Gus Johnson would have been proud.

By 2004 I was still into college hoops, but the passion was starting to wane. Matt and I each took a half day off on the opening Thursday of the tournament and met at a local sports restaurant where we parked ourselves in a booth for 5 solid hours. It was a great time; onion rings in one hand and a pair of highlighters in the other. Honestly though, it was just as much about the hang as it was about the basketball. I don’t remember how many upsets I nailed that day, I just remember having a great time with a good friend.

This year? I’ll keep track of the scores throughout the afternoon, but I won’t be spending any vacation time to watch the games. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not taking a moral stance against the obsessive nature of the tourney or anything. If college hoops is your thing, then this is your Christmas. By all means, enjoy it. Soak it in and revel in it.

And though I’m not as geeked up about it as I used to be, I think I’ll still give Matt a call this afternoon just to see how his brackets are doing. Because if there’s one thing that will never get old to me about sports, it’s the bond they give to friendships that make them that much stronger.

So, good luck in your brackets everyone. (and if you start feeling bad because you’re into your 6th hour of basketball viewing and you haven’t even thought about reading your Bible yet, don’t blame me, blame Matt.)

As for my picks, I’ve got Louisville beating Memphis and Pittsburgh beating UNC in the Final Four, with Pittsburgh beating Louisville to cut down the nets on April 6th. First the Steelers and now the Pitt Panthers? Maybe this is the year of the ‘burgh.

So who you got?

(and yeah, there’s still time until tip-off to join our Yahoo! Picks Group. League ID is 96743 and password is “burnside”. We’ve got 46 folks and counting…winner gets their choice of a PFB T-shirt or a beating.)

The Orlando Sentinel is running point/counter-point style editorials about a recent “Faith and Family” held as a promotion for a Magic game. Two columnists debate whether this type of event is a “smart promotion or an unwelcome intrusion of religion into sports?” (You can read the columns here).

The event was somewhat controversial for blending religion with sports, even though Magic star Dwight Howard is one the most outspoken Christians in the NBA.

Basically, one evening, fans could hang around after the game for a free Christian rock concert. To add a little sub-text to the controversy, the team’s owner is a well known financial supporter of conservative causes like the Amendment 2 ban on gay marriage—a fact that has made him somewhat of a lightening rod in the Central Florida press. Here’s a quote from Sentinel columnist Andrea Adelson, “The entire idea of a Faith & Family Night makes it feel as though the team is supporting that religion, and makes it even worse to know that it is trying to draw in fans with these beliefs in an effort to sell tickets. If this was a true Faith & Family Night, then Jewish groups and Muslim groups and other religious groups would be there singing their songs, too.”

One reason it didn’t get more press is possibly because it was just days after the Magic were involved another controversy—flopgate (or “the flop flap”) as it has become known.

As it turns out, Shaq flopping in the post while playing against Dwight Howard (and the ensuing war of words between the Diesel and Magic coach Stan Van Gundy) was far more interesting to the press than the blending of Christianity and sports.

I think the reason why it’s more fun to talk about Shaq, smack-talk-ridden press conferences and flopping than the political correctness and social repercussions of faith in the public square is because a lot of times, sports provide escapism from difficult issues. We watch sports because it’s fun and exciting—to get away from the screaming political pundits and gloom and doom news. Plus, tacking on a free Shane & Shane concert to the end of game isn’t really hurting anyone.

PS. I’d be amiss to post a story that mentions flopping and not include this YouTube clip of the worst flop in basketball history. I love Duke, and I’m excited about their ACC title, but it’s clips like this that make me understand why people hate them.

a few things to check out while you organize your sheets of integrity…

+ If you’re the type of person who likes to fill out brackets online in hopes of winning nothing but bragging rights, well, then you’re our type of person. We’re combining with the Burnside Writer’s Collective this year to host one big bracket party, so here’s where to go to fill out your entry (you know, the one that will eventually lose to me)

Group: Burnside Brackets (Click here to enter ID and password)
ID: 96743
Password: “burnside”

+ UT quarterback Colt McCoy is off doing Tim Tebow-esque things, without all the Tebow-esque hype.

+ Coach Mark Johnson does not hide his Christian faith from his University of Illinois Wrestling Team, and neither do the handful of wrestlers on the team who share his faith.

+ For all you NASCAR fans out there, pastor Rick Lemons has a new book out called, “The Race: From Pit Row to Victory Lane”.

…alright, get back to picking those upsets…

Is there anything more enjoyable to watch than a well-executed, devastating, yet harmless prank?

I think not.

(CollegeHumor.com)