The Morning Walk-thru - We've always preferred scenthounds

Congrats Creighton...The Bluejays are officially in the tournament and a season that had looked like a slight disappointment after loads of preseason hype is, for the moment, salvaged.

But even better, they did it by slamming SIU. The Salukis have dominated the Jays like no other team over the past four years, but Dana's gotten the best of them in championship match-ups, winning in 2003 and this year to move to 6-0 all time in title games.

Perhaps the more interesting ramification outside of my personal satisfaction is on the seedings. SIU was being talked about as a 2-4 seed, and the'll still probably end up in the top four somewhere, but where does that leave Creighton? 6? 7?

Just Read PLAY...Did you hear? The newest issue of the New York Times sports magazine, PLAY , arrived yesterday. I've only been receiving the Times for the past couple of months and this was my second issue of the magazine, but I have to say, it's certainly worth the hype. I was absolutely pumped to wake up yesterday knowing it was right there on my doorstep.

So were a lot of others. Chuck Klosterman's article on Gilbert Arenas was spotlighted last week by Dan Shanoff and Deadspin (others followed, I'm certain), but that specific piece and the magazine as a whole were as good as I had hoped. Shanoff said PLAY is better than SI and he might be right.

When you consider the access the NYT has to every major writer, photographer and illustrator out there and the fact that most of them would watch an entire season of WNBA games just to get in the magazine, I guess it shouldn't be surprising that they've put together the best designed and most well-written sports magazine around.

But I can't decide if the quarterly frequency is boon or bane. On one hand, it gives the magazine time to tackle some serious issues at greater length without worrying about timeliness. You're getting features.

On the other hand, it's so damn good I want more of it. Of course, if it was coming every month, I probably wouldn't be looking forward to it like I was yesterday.

If you don't get the Sunday Times, well, what are you doing? PLAY is available on-line, but really, read a newspaper. It's good for you.