1.) Who will be the college basketball national champion?

It’s pretty hard to tell at this point seeing as how the tournament has gone so far this year.

Virginia Commonwealth University was the last team to get into the tournament, which led them to play an extra-win-and-you’re-in game against USC.

After being one of the last four teams remaining in the tournament as the ultimate underdog, they will play Butler this weekend to see if their story will continue.

The Butler Bulldogs have been true underdogs this year much like VCU. They were the Cinderella story last year when they reached the finals and came up short in the final seconds against Duke.

The Bulldogs will take on VCU and one team will have their Cinderella story continue on for one more game.

The University of Connecticut seems to be one of the fan favorites as they battled their way through the tournament after having to play five straight games in fight straight nights to win the Big East Tournament, a few days before the NCAA tournament had begun and very little time to rest.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they were to finally run out of gas this late in the tournament. But I also would be surprised if freshman Kemba Walker helps push this team into the national championship.

The University of Kentucky has found its way into the Final Four after upsetting the number one overall seed in the tournament, Ohio State, and will have to dig deep yet again to stop Kemba Walker and the UConn Huskies.

With both semi-final games being played on Saturday, we will know by the end of the night who will be the last two standing to meet in the finals.

I believe VCU will continue to ride the momentum and beat UConn.

2.) Should the Lakers think about resting their players in preparation for the playoffs?

It will depend on how Lakers’ head coach Phil Jackson feels about his team with only a few games left in the regular season.

After Friday’s game against the Utah Jazz the Lakers will have seven games left in the regular season.

It is hard to tell what they will do with the way the Lakers are playing right now. I have to think that if they can stay on the winning streak they are currently on they may just finish the season with their starters still playing but with limited minutes.

I think it will also come down to how far away they are from catching the San Antonio Spurs for the number one seed in the Western conference.

As of Thursday afternoon, the Lakers are currently three and a half games back from the Spurs.

3.) Should we be interested in the perjury trial against Barry Bonds?

I don’t believe so, unless you care about the future of Barry Bonds.

I honestly think the state of California could spend their money better than to have a trial about Barry Bonds.

4.) Who wins the World Series this year? It is very hard to tell because we are only one day removed from opening day of the baseball season. We never know how teams will look at the end of the season until we get to that point because of possible injuries and suspensions.

It is possible we can see another team make it to the World Series unexpectedly like the San Francisco Giants did last season but if we are going to go off of key off season additions I might have to give the edge to the Boston Red Sox.

The Red Sox added outfielder Carl Crawford and first baseman Adrian Gonzalez during the off-season.

5.) Will Tiger Woods win a tournament in 2011?

Tiger Woods has been through one full season since taking a year off to get his life back in order..

I think how many tournaments he is in will determine if he will win any this year.

I have to believe Tiger Woods will win one this year so I’ll say he will, but it may be his only one throughout the whole 2011 as he is still getting his personal life adjusted.

(SportsMinded’s (James Williams) article published in the Downey Patrtiot)