Passing Grade
Posted May 31, 2010, 9:15 PM ET

I just returned from a holiday beach trip to lovely Seabrook Island.

As you know, I'm not much of a beach person, but the South Carolina community is beautiful.....the traffic coming home, however, was brutal.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic....lousy weather....and apparently a few idiots behind the wheel. I swear there was less passing from Charleston to Columbia than in your typical Indy 500.

I happened to catch some of the action from Indy and Charlotte on Sunday, and man, how can you race 1,100 miles yet have so little excitement?

The Indy 500 was a complete snoozer....but the good news is that Ashley Judd caught some serious face time on the ABC coverage. While her husband picked up his second Indy 500 win, this one was a far cry from his first Brickyard win in 2007. How can you forget the downpour with Ashley soaking wet?

With the exception of an incredible wreck on the final lap by Mike Conway (how did he survive?), the race was void of much excitement.

I couldn't help but laugh when Danica Patrick finished 6th by staying as far out of the action as humanly possible....afterwards, she claimed that it was fun running up front. That must be a code language in the Indy Racing League?

She was as close to the leaders as I was....and my fat ass was lounging at the Seabrook Island Beach Club, sucking down another cold one.

The Coca-Cola 600 was won by Kurt Busch.

That pretty much sums it up......600 miles, for a repeat of last weekend's All-Star race.

Jimmie Johnson wrecked....Kyle Busch pissed somebody off.....and Dale, Jr. sucked. Even though Junior actually led in the race, which is a new deal for the driver of the 88-car.

Last week, I interviewed Rick Hendrick on my radio show and he was very candid about the future of Dale, Jr. He said, and I'm not embellishing, that his expectations in 2010 for Dale, Jr. is to win races and finish in the top 12 for the "Chase". No exceptions. No excuses.

Junior needs to get to work ASAP. The boss is keeping his eye on the performance of the 88-car, and so far this season, it hasn't been pretty.

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The NBA got exactly what it wanted....Boston vs. LA. The best rivalry in the game......and this one has the chance to be entertaining. I also expect this one to have more of an edge to it than the last time they met in 2008.

I expect LA to be more physical than the meeting two years ago. And while the Lakers are the defending champs, I get the feeling they will play as the underdogs in this series.

I'm looking forward to it.....this time, the league doesn't have to overhype the match-up.....Celtics and Lakers will take care of that between them.

I'm too emotional to pick a winner....I hate both of them.

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The NCAA Baseball Championship is set with the field of 64.

The ACC, SEC and Pac 10 all placed 8 teams apiece. For the ACC, this is a record....and it includes both Virginia and Georgia Tech receiving top 8 national seeds.

As usual, the Carolinas are well represented.....8 teams made the field of 64 including:

It was interesting that the Tar Heels made the field of 64, since they were not good enough to qualify as one of the best 8 teams for their own conference tournament. Mike Fox has built an incredible program in Chapel Hill, but there's no way you can convince me that a team that isn't good enough to qualify for their own league title should be able to participate for the national championship.

The Heels, along with everyone else, start play on Friday as a trip to Omaha awaits.