Hit by a Pitch

I finalized my brackets approximately 15 minutes ago. Here they are in PDF form because I’m lazy but want to get them up now: 2008 brackets.

•Julius Hodge is the D-League Performer of the Week for the week of March 17. According to the D-League’s website:

In four games for Albuquerque this week, Hodge averaged 25.3 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 3.3 assists. He set season-highs in points and rebounds on Tuesday with 34 points and 12 boards in a win over Austin, the first in four straight victories this week for Albuquerque.

You can read the full story here. I’m so glad he’s doing well, and I hope we see him back in the NBA soon.

•In other news, did we know that former Iowa Hawkeye Adam Haluska is in the D-League? He was acquired by the Iowa Energy on March 11. And holy crap! The Iowa Energy has Jeff Horner Bobblehead Night tomorrow. I swear I am not making that up — check it out here (hurry, it probably won’t be up much longer). That is AWESOME. How do I get a Jeff Horner bobblehead if I can’t make it to the game?

•Jeff Passan of Yahoo! sports wrote a nice article about Bobby Jenks — read “No more high Jenks” here. High Jenks. Hee. More people should know about Big Bad Bobby Jenks. Oh and also, his intro song is “Boom” by POD.

•I’m very worried that we’ll never hear from Jose Mesa again. What if nobody picks him up this year? I’ll cry.

Michigan women’s hoops coach Kevin Borseth thinks his team’s rebounding is offensive. He busts his tail end getting these girls ready to play, and for what?! I guess this shows that there’s some good stuff  happening on the Big Ten Network.

Make sure you watch the “rate the rant” commentary at the end. There’s a good shout out to Dan Hawkins in there.

Javon Walker agreed to a six-year, $55 million deal ($16 million guaranteed) with the Oakland Raiders.

Javon is one of those athletes who just had a shitty time of it here in Denver. I hope this move is good for his career, and wish him the best with his new team.

In Bears news, the team reacquired wide receiver Marty Booker. They’ve lost Mushin Muhammad and Bernard Berrian, so they still need to do more to shore up their WR core. The team is declining to offer a deal to Brendon Ayanbadejo, who wants to make more $$$ than the Bears want to pay.

Julius Hodge signed with the Albuquerque Thunderbirds on February 28. His player page is: here. In his first game with the Thunderbirds on March 2, he played 38:29 and had 19 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 5 turnovers (oops!).

Congratulations, Julius, and welcome back!