Sports Shorts for Thursday Afternoon

• March Madness begins tonight at the Sewall Center in Moon Township when the Robert Morris Colonials take on the Seahawks of Wagner in the opening round of the NEC Tournament. Let's Go Colonials!!
• Most interesting/disturbing piece of news out of Bradenton this week was pitcher Scott Olsen bitching about possibly being relegated to bullpen duty if that is how it all shakes out in Spring Training. Not so, says Scott. "I'm a starter" says he. What he didn't say was that "I'm also a pretty crummy starter at that." As Bloggin' Bob Smizik pointed out, Olsen was the rare major league player who had to take a pay cut this year in order to sign with the worst team in the majors. Here's hoping Clint Hurdle puts his foot down on this guy and not get any direction from GM Opie in the process.
• How about the line of B.S. from Pitt AD Steve Pederson in response to the SI report about the criminal records of Pitt football players in 2010? Talk about classic evasion and non-responsiveness. It was classic.
• Dave Wannstadt's response wasn't much better.
• Contrast that to Brigham Young University bouncing one of it's top hoops players for violating the school's honor code. One needn't be a Mormon to applaud the school standing on its principles. Could you see that happening at, say, just to pick a school at random here, Auburn?
• A prior commitment will keep me away from the Palumbo Center on Saturday night, but I will be cheering in absentia for the Shaler girls basketball team as they go against Mt. Lebanon for the WPIAL Quad-A title. As I said earlier, if you don't already have a horse in the race, cheer for the Lady Titans.
• On the NFL front, what is more boring to you? Stories about the Combine in Indianapolis, or breathless reporting on the Player Lockout and CBA negotiations? It's a tough call.
• If there are any readers out there interested in playing in a charity golf outing on May 23 at Shannopin Country Club, please contact me directly. $150 gets you a round of golf, lunch and dinner, and the chance to win some neat prizes while supporting the Youth Ministry programs at St. John Neumann Parish.