What a great time to be alive.

With spring fully upon us, that can only mean one thing: March Madness is here and kicking.

I say it’s time to step back and take a closer look at the full palette of sports that we have before us.

First of all, of course, we have the men’s basketball team in the Sweet 16, which few outside of this columnist ever expected when this tournament started last week.

Of course, miracles happen, with some decent calls going our way for once in Saturday’s game against Cincinnati, who, coincidentally, was picked by Sports Illustrated in its college basketball preview issue to win the national championship. So much for that idea. Maybe it was the SI cover jinx hitting again.

But of course, looking at last night’s game with UCLA, I can only hope we’re all looking forward to the regional final tomorrow against the Minnesota-Clemson winner, which, of course, leads to the Final Four next weekend in Indianapolis.

Staying with basketball, we still have the last month of the NBA season, with the Chicago Bulls still kicking some serious rear and taking names.

With a 57-9 record going into today’s game and a playoff berth already sewed up, the Bulls are simply cruising to their second consecutive championship and fifth in seven years.

Michael Jordan and company have simply been awesome, with Jordan averaging 30-plus points a game once again and Dennis Rodman getting his 15 rebounds a game and keeping everyone on their toes with his antics.

Speaking of Rodman, I caught a commercial the other night advertising the movie he made with Jean-Claude Van Damme, called “Double Team.”

To tell you the truth, it actually looks pretty good, and I plan on going to check it out, if for anything to see what color Rodman’s hair was (I think it was blond, if I remember correctly).

Then, starting next weekend, we have the start of the baseball season. It’s going to be pretty awesome, especially with some inter-league play beginning in June. My only problem with the whole affair is what Jerry Reinsdorf is doing for the Cubs-White Sox series at Comiskey Park June 16-18.

The team announced last month that in order to obtain a ticket to the any game in the series, you will have to buy a ticket to three other games. I guess he knows what baseball team the city and the rest of the nation roots for in Chicago and is afraid that Comiskey Park will become Wrigley Field South if he doesn’t put this policy in.

I guess I’ll have to go see the Cubbies play Milwaukee or the Twinkies instead.

On a final note, I just want to say justice was finally served last week. Lawrence Phillips, the oft-troubled running back from Nebraska and now of the St. Louis Rams, began serving a 30-day jail sentence in an Omaha jail earlier this week for violating his parole by getting arrested on drunken driving charges. I had a feeling they would catch up with him sometime.

What a great time to be alive.

Rob Daniel is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Zion, Ill.