ALUM-INATING III

After rave reviews of last years Sweet Sixteen blogs, we've decided to once again look at those famous or notable people that have graduated or at least attended the schools in this year's Men's Basketball Sweet Sixteen. So today we'll look at the first eight schools.

SOUTH REGION:
MEMPHIS- Well last year we learned that the incomparable Designing Woman, Dixie Carter attended the University of Memphis, but did you also know that legendary game show host Wink Martindale went there as well? Yes the host of several game shows, including, "High Rollers", "Tic Tac Dough", and "Trivial Pursuit". And recently he has appeared in commercials for Orbitz gum. Now, while he was no Bill Cullen, he did a bang-up job.

TEXAS A&M: Now aside from the many football players A&M has churned out, the list of alumnists also includes goofy looking musician Lyle Lovett and noted actor Rip Torn. You may be familiar with Torn's portryal of Patches O'Houlihan in the movie Dodgeball or as Tom Green's angry father in the cinematic classic Freddie Got Fingered. But there is one more notable A&M alum we'd like to mention. James Adams. Adams is the Director at Texas Instruments, which is of course responsible for my graphing calculator and my Speak 'n' Spell. Do they still make those? If not, you can bet Mr.Adams will be receiving a letter from me.

OHIO STATE- Well, the list of famous Ohio State alumnists is very, very long. The list includes Everybody Loves Raymond's Patricia Heaton, Hall of Fame baseball announcer Jack Buck, and famed comedy writer Bruce Vilanch, who you may better know from Hollywood Squares, hosted by Tom Bergeron. But it's coolest alum by far has to be, Ron O'Neal. O'Neal of course played cocaine dealer Youngblood Priest in the blaxpoitation Superfly movies. Unfortunately, O'Neal passed away and will only there in spirit when the Buckeyes take on Tennessee on Thursday evening.

TENNESSEE- Now, the mosted noted Volunteers are athletes, like Peyton Manning, Allan Houston, and Todd Helton. But did you know that ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski also attended the University? Or how about Woody Paige? Yes that's right, the same Woody paige you can see on ESPN's Around the Horn or Cold Pizza. In our opinion Paige is one of the biggest windbags on the continent, maybe the world, and has no business being on television, but maybe that's just us? Another famed alum is none other than Kevin Nash. Nash was a longtime wrestler, who you may know as Diesel. Nash has also done some acting. He appeared in an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and played Shredder in the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.


WEST REGION:
KANSAS- Now Kansas has quite a few notable alums, such as Quantum Leap's Scott Backula, Boy Meets World's Betsy Randle (she was the mom), Mandy Patinkin, and thin, fat, thinner actress Kirstie Allie. But far and away, our favorite former Jayhawk is none other than Brian Fantana himself, Mr. Paul Rudd. We've been a fan of Rudd's work for a long time and look forward to his upcoming ventures as well. His best best work to date though,would have to be his role as Brian Fantana in Anchorman.

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS- Southern Illinois has produced some extremely funny people. There's Mr Show's Bob Odenkirk (oddly enough Santa Fe mayor David Coss is also a former Saluki), Bill Dwyer and Jim Belushi (if you've seen K-9 you know what we're talking about!). We should also mention that former Playboy model and Singled Out girl, Jenny McCarthy was a Saluki. But the baddest mammajamma to ever attend this esteemed insitution, is none other than Richard Roundtree! That's right, SHAFT! Shut your mouth! I'm just talking about SHAFT!

UCLA- Many noted actors have attended UCLA. Among them is "Rudy" and hobbit, Sean Astin.
Another UCLA alum is Blossom, aka Mayim Bialik. Now interestingly enough The Simpson's Harry Shearer and Nancy Cartwright were both Bruins. But it doesn't end there, as Simpson's producer David Silverman also attended. But since this is inspired by the college hoops tournament, we would be remiss uf we didn't include one of the best ballers to come out of UCLA, the one and only Jaleel White. We've seen Urkel ball, on Family Matters with Grandmama, and as himself take over MTV's Rock 'n' Jock basketball.

PITTSBURGH- Piitsburgh was attended by one of the greatest dancers of all-time, Gene Kelly as well as well-established writer John Irving. You probably know Kelly from Singin' in the Rain, while you may know Irving for the movies that were made from his books, like The World According to Garp and The Cider House Rules. Or perhaps you've read the novelizations? But the best alum has to be David Dalessandro. He of course, wrote the screenplay for the cinematic genius that is Snakes on a Plane.

So that's it! Tune in later to see if we can find a blaxploitation connection to the other two regions as well.