Butler is back in the Elite Eight, there is no Curse of Dick Bennett (although he certainly wouldn't have approved of Wisconsin's performance last night), and the only thing surprising about it is a.) the lack of general public shock and b.) that this video has only been watched 9,500 times. So the Bulldogs will play for a second straight Final Four berth tomorrow, and tonight the two Richmond teams march on. What else is there to talk about? Plenty! Come to the Chat Block at 4 pm ET, live from San Antonio.

Yee-haw! We are in San Antonio, Texas. So are VCU and Richmond. The weather is great, the Alamodome is weird, and we're ready to chat this afternoon on a special date but a regular time (4 PM ET). Come by and talk about the three remaining teams, the Butler-Wisconsin tilt tonight, or anything you feel like. Chat Block!

In this week between 32 and 16, only Butler, Richmond and VCU remain. What do they have to do to continue on and keep their lights lit? And what of all the fallen teams around Hoops Nation, what's next for them? New coaches, new players, or old patterns? Come chat about these matters, the new Red Line (hello, BYU! farewell, Boise State and Conference USA!), #ghostbrackets and their purpose, the future of anything, and life in general. It's a Chat Block on a special date and time: Tuesday at 4:00 EDT.

It's been a crazy week: storming the court, driving through a snowstorm, and seeing lots and lots of games up close. We are half-alive and fully excited about being in Atlantic City this weekend for the grand finale of Championship Fortnight, and to see the Atlantic One crowned. Selection Sunday is near, and it's time to break out your As-You-Go Brackets and get ready for the inaugural First Four as well as the normal annual six rounds of March magic and mayhem. At the same time, there's the theoretical realization that Season 7 could be over seven days from today. Come for a very special chat at a very special time (4:30 ET) and share your thoughts about this week, next week, or how it's going to end.

Championship Fortnight is in full swing, and the lights are going out every day on our tote board. What will the shape of the constellation be when it's all over? Come by and join us with your speculations and musings at 4 p.m. Eastern Standard. We are in Bridgeport, Conn. today for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference 7/10 and 8/9 games, and we'll save you a pillow.

It's the final regular season weekend for everyone, and a few leagues start tourneys next Tuesday. That means one more full week of Stardates, Tourney Central, and four days of overlap. For the time being, it's time to chat about all the league races, tiebreaker possibilities, and even a few multi-bid situations. Also, stay tuned for some exciting BALLZ news. The fun begins, as usual, at 4 pm Eastern.

Keep bustin'! It's BracketBusters weekend, and here are those matchups again, and these Buster chats have been known to get pretty crazy. Come see the softer side of basketball, today at 4PM ET.

The last time there was a Chat Block, a loaf of bread cost a quarter. But those were only the loaves in the week-old bin, inedible by humans and only suitable to be crumbled up and given to birds. We're back on the Block after a 14-day absence, just as we embark on our final long road trip of the regular season. Only hardcore basketball discussion, please! Oh, and anything you've got about horchata, pretty redheads and Tom Petty... or anything else you can think of. This "serious fun" begins at 4:00 pm ET, see you here.

At the close of January, just about every conference is in the second half of their schedules, so we have a pretty good idea of who the contenders and the other guys are. Teams are moving slowly into position for March. Utah State, Saint Mary's, Coastal Carolina, Northern Colorado, Oakland and Duquesne still haven't lost a league game yet. We have BracketBusters pairings coming too, and National Pixelvision Day will be upon us shortly. See? Plenty of college basketball-related things to talk about that have nothing to do with "Jimmer." Come by at 4 pm ET and let's do this.

Onward we push into the middle of conference season. There is unvarnished league excellence at Saint Mary's, Belmont, Coastal Carolina and Oakland, surprising overachievement at places like Duquesne, Valpo, and even MEAC-undefeated Bethune-Cookman. Most of the disappointments of the season so far would probably prefer to remain nameless, but we can discuss them too. Come by at 4 pm ET for the 11th Chat Block of Season 7, where we can talk about basketball or general ephemera, or even our next book project, which is named after a Tom Petty album. (Or, of course, we can talk about Tom Petty.)

Wasn't it just yesterday when we were driving around Vermont looking for wifi so we could hold Chat Block 701? Seasons go fast; savor every #omgdunx and #superhoop.

The tenth edition of S7 will occur, as always, on Friday at 4 pm Eastern (3 pm Central). Suggested topics include the fantastic races we have in the CAA, the Horizon League and the Valley, some of the best in recent memory. Or league undefeateds like Belmont, Northern Colorado, Austin Peay, Long Beach State and Coastal Carolina, all of which will probably end up in your bracket someday soon. Or let's talk about your team! We can probably figure out something interesting to say about it. Or let's talk about something else. Participation is on the upswing! We had 98 different people asking questions last week, so let's make break 100 this week, tell your friends and don't be a stranger/lurker.

(Image from TPDSAA)

Seven golds in the final night of Bird's Nest Olympic action. Championships in baseball, women's basketball and handball, and men's field hockey and football. It's all part of one the busiest podium days, with a grand total of 31 medal ceremonies on the second-to-last day of the Games of the 29th Olympiad. First, though, a peek back at some of the things that happened last night on Day 13.

ATHLETICS: American Bryan Clay is the World's Greatest Athlete, by virtue of winning the Olympic decathlon title last night. He was the silver medalist in Athens 2004, won the world championship the next year, and holds the world record among decathletes in the discus. All this, and he has a fraction of the name recognition of U.S. decathletes "Dan and Dave," Bruce Jenner, Rafer Johnson... or more in proper 2008 context, Michael Phelps.

He carried on a grand U.S. decathlon tradition -- Americans have won 11 golds in the 10-event event, and hadn't won the event since Dan O'Brien blew away the field at Atlanta 1996. Clay's Olympic victory margin, 240 points, was the largest since 1972. He's also the third to turn silver into gold, upgrading his medal at the following games just like Johnson and Milt Campbell did in the 1950's.

Clay didn't overcome any debilitating diseases, isn't doing it for a dead person, doesn't trash talk at his opponents or say interesting things to the media. He's just a softspoken guy with a wife and two kids who just so happens to be, you know, the World's Greatest Athlete. Made for one the most boring NBC-TV profiles ever, and the American television rightsholder wrapped up his last five events in a tidy 15-minute package as he locked up the championship after nine events. Physically spent and unable to challenge for the world record, he crossed the line last in the 1500 meter run and collapsed to the track. While it may not have made for great television, it's pleasing to know that the WGA is 100 percent hype-proof.

Usain Bolt certainly isn't. The loquacious Jamaican star made a claim to the title of best sprinter ever (forever debatable, of course) by helping his country's 4x100 relay team smash the world record in 37.10. And this blog means smash... the old mark was 37.40 and had stood for 16 years, ever since Carl Lewis (another big talker) and the Americans smashed their own mark. In the past two decades, this record has been ratcheted down by three-quarters of a second. What did the Lightning Man, the only sprinter to pull a 100-200-4x100 triple with three world records, have to say afterwards?

"You can't explain the feeling you feel after the greatest Olympics ever," Bolt said. "It's won-der-ful."

SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING: From the sublime to the... something else. The Olympic sport that wears its entertainment aspirations on its sequined sleeves began its team competition yesterday. Russia leads, but in second place is the Spanish team that previously wanted to wear suits with embedded lights. When that request was denied, the Spaniards tried something else.

Gangsta.

With the menacing suits and a soundtrack of Spanish techno, the ESP nine finished the technical routine with 48.917 points. In eighth are the poor Egyptians, who were stuck in last place in the duet competition as well. The team event wraps up today, and if the two-woman standings are any indication, nobody will move up or down.

BOXING: Along with breathtaking performances on the track and pretty, shiny sights at the Watercube, one of the ugliest moments at these Games or any other at the Beijing Workers' Gymnasium.

In one semifinal of the light welterweight class, Alexis Vastine of France was fighting Dominican Felix Diaz. For the entire first half of the bout, Diaz held his gloves behind Vastine's head, attempting to steady him and pull back for uppercuts. Despite this dangerous situation, one you might find in a street fight, Philippine referee Rogelio Fortaleza stood idly by until 24 seconds remaining in the round. Fortaleza stepped in and gave a caution... to Vastine.

The Frenchman fought the rest of the round with his arms extended wide in an attempt to show the referee the extend of Diaz's clutching. Fortaleza stepped in again, and issued a caution to a shocked French blue corner, claiming that they were talking too much.

Vastine landed enough punches to gain a 5-2 lead, as three of the five judges pressed the touchpad buttons to register hits. Halfway into the second round, Diaz caught Vastine in a headlock, which resulted in a Vastine caution and a dismissal of the French coach from the ringside area. When the French fighter broke free for more clear punches in the third, leading comfortably 7-2, Fortaleza broke up a mutual hold and issued Vastine a full "W" warning, awarding Diaz two points.

With 20 seconds to go in the fight, with the punch count tied at 10 and Vastine attempting to push his way out of another Diaz chokehold, Fortaleza fully took the match into his own ungloved hands. A second two-point "W" was given to Vastine, and Diaz won the fight 12-10.

This fight was fixed, plain and simple.

Also yesterday, the International Amateur Boxing Association's Romanian technical delegate Rudel Obreja attempted to hold a news conference to claim that AIBA secretary-general Ho Kim had personally overseen the changing of referees for certain matches, a process that was supposedly randomized via computer during recent reforms.

"Under AIBA rules the names of referees and judges come out of a computer but here in Beijing that rule was broken. Ho Kim, who calls himself secretary-general of this tournament, has changed 60-70% of those names ... I expect to be expelled from AIBA for what I'm telling you."

With that, his microphone was turned off, the lights turned down, and it was later revealed that Oberja was suspended by the AIBA. NBC-TV analyst Teddy Atlas, one of the sport's most passionate defenders, sounded off on a wrapup broadcast.

"I trace this all back 20 years ago to 1988. This was all brought about by that controversial situation with Roy Jones Jr.... he had that horrible decision that was taken from him. Everybody was up in arms about it. They were talking about removing boxing from the Olympics. So they had to do something to save the sport. So they came up with this so-called computer system. When you look back now, and remember how earth-shattering that controversy was over Roy Jones Jr., that seems like a papercut compared to the hemorrhaging that's going on here. And now this situation here is so much bigger, the scope is so much larger. You wonder where this sport is going to wind up."

Boxing has had a problem long before Seoul. Other Olympic combat sports such as taekwondo, wrestling and judo award points and victories for performing certain physical tasks, which are outlined in rulebooks, their successful completion obvious to the spectator without subjectivity. In boxing, a punch is a punch, and that's the heart of the issue. What is a punch? Why and how can five different people not agree on what and what isn't one?

Cheating is one thing, whether it's via false documents or drugs or blood-switching. People will always cheat, and it's because they feel the competition is worthy of winning. To sacrifice body, soul and reputation for momentary excellence is a decision that, in a twisted way, is a gesture of respect towards the event and its importance. Nobody dopes for a friendly chess match or a backyard football game. For an organization to fix its own event, however, is the worst and ugliest form of betrayal. It turns competitors into objects, puts an artificial ceiling on achievement, and renders the results irrelevant. Cheating to win and organizational match-fixing are two completely opposite things.

Can't end on that. Here's a tribute to the man who led the U.S. to the 4x100 relay record four Olympiads ago. May Mr. Bolt make better career and wardrobe decisions when his running days are done.

Photo © Icon SMI

At the close of each day of competition, this blog will present the brackets of all active team sports.

Results of the Day 14 competitions.

On the second-to-last full night of competition at the Beijing Olympics, semifinals are taking place in men's basketball, volleyball, handball and baseball. Six golds are up for grabs at the Bird's Nest. What else happened today?

ATHLETICS: As this blog has noted in the past, the reasonable human threshold for distance running is about 20 miles, and the marathon is taxing enough -- world-class runners can span the 26.2-mile distance in around two hours. But until the eight-hour Ironman triathlon is added as an Olympic event (virtually unlikely), the longest Olympic endurance events are a pair of races that ease the pressure of running with slight modifications. In the cycling road race, a grueling six-hour affair won this year by Samuel Sanchez (ESP), at least you get a seat and some wheels. And then there's the 50km race walk.

Sure, it looks silly and everything, but there are very few people who can do anything for three and a half hours in a row, other than reading, typing at a computer or sleeping. Today, Alex Schwazer of Italy smashed the Olympic record by covering the 31-mile distance in 3:37:09. Australian Jared Tallent, for his part, earned silver less than a week after bronzing in the 20km. That's 43 miles, roughly the distance between Washington, DC and Baltimore, all while shaking his booty like a dance champion.

Tallent only bent his knee once, and Olympic titlist Schwazer was called for a single infraction for having both feet off the ground at the same time. In the tradition of this blog, a tribute to the five racewalkers who were removed from the race with three fouls: Artur Brzozowski of Poland, Italy's Diego Cafagna, Irishman Colin Griffin, Darius Skarnulis of Lithuania and El Salvador's Salvador Mira. You were in a hurry, but the rules are there for your own protection.

Earlier, Carl Lewis was approached at Beijing Silk Market by the AP and was asked about the accomplishments of Jamaican Usain Bolt, the first sprinter since Lewis to achieve the 100-200 double. It's a reasonable enough question, but the 10-time Olympic medalist provided a reminder that for some people, national teams aren't the only ones competing at the Games.

"He's a Puma guy. I really can't say anything...I said something the other day and the Nike people saw it and they weren't happy. "

CANOE/KAYAK: Hungarian canoeist Gyorgy Kolonics was one of the great figures in his sport -- in a long and distinguished career of nearly two decades, he won 15 world championships as well as gold medals at Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 (in the C-2 and C-1 sprints) and was known for explosive finishes. He was training for the Beijing Olympics when he collapsed and died in his boat on July 15. He was 36.

The initial cause of death was listed as arterial plaque, but in such a high-profile case, things became more complicated. His trainer accused Hungary's National Ambulance Service of arriving a half-hour late to the scene and failing to have a defibrillator. The service fired back, claiming that Kolonics was wearing muscular-fatigue bandages (similar to the ones seen around these Games) that shut off his body's "stop" signal during a hard training session.

Amidst all this, the Hungarian Olympic team had less than a month to prepare for the Olympics. Kolonics' C-2 partner Gyorgy Kozmann, who won world championships with Kolonics at the 500 meter distance in 2006 and 2007, initially refused to go before relenting and taking on new boatmate Tamas Kiss for the 1000 meter event. Brothers Mihaly and Matyas Safran took over duties in the C-2 sprint.

Today was the C-2 1000m race. Wearing black armbands, Kozmann and Kiss got off to an awful start, splitting in sixth after the first quarter of the race. They fell back even further, only leading the Chinese and Polish boats at the halfway point. But with an enormous push, the pair came up the field to finish the race in 3:40.258. They barely edged out the Romanians for bronze, by less than a tenth of a second.

There was another dangerous moment in the final. The silver medal-winning German boat of Thomasz Wylenzek and Christian Gille led nearly the entire race, but Belarus caught them at the line. After the race, Wylenzek lost consciousness and was sped to a local hospital. He was given IV fluids but missed the medal ceremony.

Photo credit; Getty Images

The afternoon sun gently bakes the venues on this day before the day before the end. Day 14 is a unique one at the Games, and please indulge this blog as it explores one of the Final Friday's key components: classifications.

Nobody saw fit to distribute an easy-to-understand comprehensive guide to Olympic structure. Television is too busy selling the athletes who will star in the post-Games advertisements to spend time explaining how this thing really works.

In the most simplistic terms possible, the International Olympic Committee is in the bubble business. Lots of governments want the IOC to build their temporary world inside their countries and cities, because recent history indicates that the Olympics are good for the local economy (or in the case of China, a fine way to show national strength). So they make elaborate presentations, promise and build full sets of stadia. Seven years after the site selection, the bubble encases the venues (expiration date: 16 days from first use), and the IOC diligently guards its contents against drugs, politics and ads. As best it can, anyway.

What goes on inside the bubble is left to the sports federations, which run their competitions as they see fit. The IOC is too busy attempting to keep nastiness out to run a beach volleyball tournament or an BMX race, and besides, they know who the experts are. All the IOC asks in return for bubble citizenship is that federations play nice and stay globally relevant... sorry, softball and baseball.

Because every sport is free to run its business with different methods and different rules, each eliminates aspirants in different ways.

One of the most notable things about these "Teen Days" of the Games is the way team sports go about constructing their final tables. In football and basketball, for instance, you simply go home if you don't make the quarterfinals. Many sports keep going for another round, offering games for placement. Indeed, Day 14 is filthy with classification matches.

When there's a medal on the line, there's no need to invent motivation. Not the case in a game like the early-morning 11th place faceoff in the men's water polo tournament, with hapless hosts China and historically inept Canada, which became the first water polo shutout in 32 years with a 12-0 pool-play loss to Montenegro. Neither team had won a game yet, so something good had to happen. The Canadians stayed afloat, edging China 8-7 in front of what the CBC referred to as a "roaring crowd."

Over at the National Indoor Stadium, the men's handball tournament is in its final stages of figuring itself out, with considerably less enthusiasm in the seats. The evening slate might feature the two exciting semifinals (Iceland-Spain and France-Croatia), but those with a ticket to the noon session got to see the fifth and seventh place matches.

It was the chance to say a final goodbye to Denmark, this blog's favorite team, which squandered a late two-goal lead to Russia and lost 28-27. As in many games in this tournament, the Danes wasted golden opportunities with untimely physical play, taking five two-minute penalties. Legendary coach Ulrik Wilbek contorted his face into so many pained expressions that the neutral BOB international feed was able to present a 60-second compilation after the match. Denmark finishes the campaign 2-3-2, in sixth place.

At the temporary field hockey venue on the Olympic Green, the 11-12 and 5-6 games closed out the women's classification. South Africa won the right to say they didn't finish last by beating New Zealand's Black Sticks 4-1 (right). In the second game, another of this blog's watchlist teams, the red-and-white lionesses of Great Britain. The Australian "Hockeyroos," in sharp decline since golds in 1996 and 2000, played an angry and attacking style, scoring goals in both halves in their Beijing finish.

After an apparent equalizer was disallowed in the 46th minute after a video review, Alex Danson (above) and Great Britain (2-2-2) was sapped of their will to continue. And when the game was over, there were tears on the pitch from the joint English and Irish squad. Not from relief, but because they wanted to win something, anything. Just another Olympic team whose will to win far outstripped its ability to.

Photo credit: Getty Images

Clear and sunny this morning after a rain-drenched Day 13. Most of the medal-winning action occurs in the afternoon hours, but let's take a quick look at the latest developments in Virtual Olympicland.

TABLE TENNIS: Two key figures in the Opening Ceremony squared off against each other this morning in the women's singles semifinals. Zhang Yining of China is the defending gold medalist in this event and took the competitor's oath on behalf of all athletes (above). Li Jiawei is the defending tin medalist in women's singles, and gained notoriety when she dragged the flag of Singapore on the ground during the Parade of Nations.

With a berth in the gold medal match on the line, Li toughed out an 11-9 victory in the first game of the best-of-seven series. But Zhang, Thunderstix-banging home fans swelling behind her, soared to a match tying 11-8 win and survived a gritty 12-10 battle in the third.