It's a beautiful day!

It’s been a gorgeous day.

The long, hard, cold winter is over. Today we enjoyed 60 degrees and sunny.

I spent almost all of daylight doing yard work and listening to the Cubs on WGN. And the few hours that I didn’t spend working on my own yard, I was down at the ballpark helping the guys prepare it for the season … Yardwork. Listening to the Cubs on WGN. And being at the ballpark -- three of my favorite pastimes.

Even better, the Cubs pulled off a fabulous comeback win.

* * *

And at 7:58 p.m., I was parked in front of the TV for the Kansas-North Carolina Final Four game ...

Wow.

Going in, I knew if they could shut down Tyler Hansbrough, they could get North Carolina out of sync. And that's exactly what they did ...

Barely two minutes into the game I was on my feet and standing in front of the TV ...

The Jayhawks were getting every ball. And hitting every shot, no matter how difficult ... As my good friend Ben, who taught me just about everything I know about the game of basketball, used to say, “They picked ‘em like a booger.”

There was just nothing but blue around the basket … Seriously. I think it might have been one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my years of watching basketball.

Midway through the first half, with Kansas leading 33-12, Kates, who was grading papers and not paying close attention, looked up at the score and said, with a laugh, "Wow!"

And shortly after that, Billy Packer boldly said, “This is game is over.” ... Not Yet! Kates and I screamed. We're well aware of the Jayhawks ability to crumble ...

Then, of course, they started getting sloppy in the last five minutes of the first half ... And when it continued into the second half, I could only sit with my hand to my mouth. With my eyes glazed over. Hoping they could hold on.

They did. And Jayhawk nation rejoiced.

We're playing on Monday night folks.