Category: College Basketball

I’m not going to even pretend like I’m not biased. I hate Duke. I hate Duke with a passion. So this is the type of story that has me all pissed off for no good reason. J.J. Redick threw his (probably fungus ridden) shoes into the crowd after a game and the guy who caught it was happier than a pig in slop.

This is a prized possession. I’ve been a Duke fan for 20 years. Got my son pulling for them. This is special.”

Steele was almost speechless about his souvenir and became an instant celebrity. People wanted to have their picture taken with him and the prized shoe.

“Of all the Duke things we’ve got at the house, this is number 1. It was sweet … I’m about at a loss for words.

It’s just a shoe of a guy who will be a huge bust in the NBA! It’s not the turin shroud. God I hate Duke fans. (Ok, back to sports news.)

[WFMY]: Duke’s Redick Tosses A Surprise Out To Fans

It’s here boys and girls. It’s here!  I know you’ve read a million stories this week about how great March Madness is.  I don’t care.  It cannot be overstated.  March Madness is like Christmas, New Years, Fourth of July and Degenerate Gamblers Day all rolled up in one.

Here’s what makes the NCAA tourney so great:

• First round buzzer beaters.  I just saw a replay of the Bryce Drew three pointer to beat Ole Miss and it still is a great play. I can’t believe it was 8 years ago.
• Princeton beats UCLA with nothing but backdoor cuts.  Weber state beats UNC.  Vermont beats Syracuse. Bucknell beats Kansas. Villanova plays the perfect game to beat Georgetown.
• Games start around noon EST.  BAC should be about .250 by the time the last game tips off on the east coast
• Your bracket will be ruined by Sunday but you don’t care because everyone else’s is as well and you still might win.
• Oral Roberts university is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to 1 odds to win the whole thing.  Most of you laugh. Some of you are thinking, I should put $1 on that.  The latter should get some help.
• Even hot chicks who don’t care about sports get into the tournament because they have $10 in the pool.
• If your boss catches you reloading scores on your computer all day, who cares? He’s doing the same thing.
• You can use some of these excuses to call out sick from work and you probably will get away with it.
• The fact that there is always a 12-5 upset.
• You have just a good a chance of getting the perfect bracket as experts who analyze college hoops for a living. That is, zero.
• It lasts for three weeks and every game is a potential classic.

Oh man, I know you guys are just as excited as I am. You know, those ESPN commercials are all wrong. Heaven doesn’t include Stephon Marbury hogging the ball or race cars zooming by. Heaven would be March Madness all year long.

Call Pizza Hut baby!

I like that Dick Vitale loves life. I like that Dick Vitale loves college basketball. I hate Dick Vitale. If you aren’t sick of Dick Vitale by the end of Round 1, perhaps you’re the target customer for his new ringtones on Sprint phones.

Yes, this is exactly what I want, Dick Vitale telling me that “it’s your favorite Dipsydoo Dunkaroo playmaker calling. Now step up to the line and pick up the phone!” What’s next? Stephen A Smith yelling at me, “You are a disgrace, huh, now answer the phone!”

Sprint actually wants to charge you $2.50 to put Dukie V on your cell phone. If Sprint were smart, they’d make Dick Vitale the default ringtone and charge people $10 to take it off their phones. I’d pay.

[Sprint]: Sprint’s tournament site

Sucker!

This actually happened a couple of weeks ago but it’s worth blogging it late just because it was so damn clever. When USC played at Cal on March 4th, the student section was armed with a free throw distraction much better than thundersticks and white balloons.

For the whole week leading up to the game, USC point guard Gabe Pruitt was chatting up a sexy co-ed at UCLA named Victoria. He gave her his number and set up a date in L.A. Unfortunately, “Victoria” turned out to be someone from Cal’s rally committee. When the 79% free throw shooter stepped up to the line, he was seranaded with “Victoria” chants and his own phone number yelled back at him. Pruitt missed both free throws and ended up 3-13 from the field. Well done, Cal students, well done.

What’s the lesson here? Never trust a girl from UCLA.

[Schneier.com]: Basketball Prank

Classic

By now you already know that you can get all the NCAA tournament games for free on the internet this year. But you can also get condensed video of the games via the Apple Music store for $1.99 each or $19.99 for a season pass.

I think Apple is betting on a team with a huge following winning it all. Why else would you want video of all the games after the fact? You can also get a season pass to NCAA March Madness Classics for $9.99. That’s a little steep for an 8 minute video. Now if they could offer condensed games from the past, I’d be all over it. Sign me up for Villanova over Georgetown in ’85.

[MSNBC]: March Madness comes to your iPod

One of my favorite parts of the NCAA tournament are the weird, random, and cool names that inhabit the brackets.  God Shammgod will always have the best name in college basketball history, followed closely by Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje, but here are this year’s best names in the NCAA tournament.  Some of them are funny, some are cool, and some make us giggle because deep down, we are immature and stupid.

1st Team
F: Magnum Rolle, LSU – How’d you like to walk up to a girl and say, “hi, I’m Magnum Rolle.”  
F: Pops Mensah-Bonsu, George Washington – just a great name.
C: John Oates, Boston College – I wonder if Darryl Hall can ball as well.
G: Pee-Wee Gash, Tennessee – Do you know the joke where the punchline is  “I do too, mine’s as big as a milk pail”?
G: Jonathan Bluitt, Oral Roberts – I would love to see the headline, “Jonathan Bluitt misses game winning layup”. And yes, I stayed away from the obvious Oral Roberts joke.

2nd Team
F: Ryan Teets, Air Force – Imagine groundskeeper Willie saying his name.
F: Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, UCLA – In the Boumtje-Boumtje tradition.  
C: Idong Ibok, Michigan State – Sounds like an Apple product.
G: Jazz Williams, Southern – A much better choice than “Polka”.
G: Jamar Nutter, Seton Hall – Do I have to say anything?

Honorable Mentions:  Simplice Njoya, Acie Law IV, Maurice Gibbs, Mani Messy, and Mario “Superintendent” Chalmers.

What are your favorite names past and present?

Willis McGahee’s knee injury in the national championship was pretty gruesome. Joe Theisman’s leg snapping goes down as one of the worst sights in NFL history. But nothing and I mean nothing was worse than Allan Ray’s eye popping out of his head.

Now that Ray’s been cleared to play in the tournament, I figure it’s ok to link to the video. If you’re squeamish, I don’t suggest you watch this. It’s worse than Kathy Bates getting naked in About Schmidt.

[AP]: Ray cleared to practice after scary eye injury

I mean really, having the Lady Volunteers as a #2 seed in the same region as over #1 UNC? Oh wait, I’m sorry, I slipped into a parallel universe where I cared at all about the womens tourney. OK, back to reality.

Craig Littlepage, the chairman defended the 10 member selection committee against Billy Packer and everyone who jumped all over them. The committee does have its share of screw ups (Why is Air Force even in the tournament? Watch them get to the sweet 16 now.) but Billy Packer is an asshole. Don’t forget in 2004 ago when Bill Packer said St Joes didn’t deserve to be a top seed and then had the Hawks dispatch his alma mater, Wake Forest, to reach the Elite Eight.

Packer criticized the committee for having too many mid-major schools. If it were up to Billy Packer, the ACC would just get all the top seeds and then every other power conference would get the rest. The reason why March Madness is so great is that a team like Vermont can knock off Syracuse. The NCAA selection committee isn’t perfect but as long as Duke doesn’t get all the calls in the tournament, March Madness will still be the best 3 weeks in sports.

Here are some national and blog opinions:

• [USA Today]: Conference called on tourney carpet
• [Fox Sports]: Were these seeds made under the influence?
• [Chris’s Sports Blog]: Every bit of criticism going the committee’s way until Thursday (because, let’s face it, nobody’s going to care whether Missouri State got in once the Tournament tips-off) will be self-inflicted. They screwed up big-time.
• [Orange44]: Is it possible that the NCAA Men’s Basketball Selection Committee could be considered even more inept?
• [Alan, Esq.]: The NCAA Basketball Selection Committee was apparently under the effects of crack cocaine yesterday when it selected several of its at-large bids.
• [Two Four One]: The NCAA Selection Committee has to go. It’s not even a question. The entire process has become colluded by politics and no one cares about RPI, Quality Wins or strength of schedule.

Ok folks, due to popular demand, we are having a march madness pool.  Here are the details:

I am conducting the pool on Yahoo. The scoring system is more points for deeper rounds (1,2,4..etc).  There’s no bonus for upsets.  

Yahoo Tourney Pickem
League ID#30443
Password is “massamino”

$10 entry fee via paypal or creditcard only. You must pay me by the start of the games on Thursday to be eligible for the prize pool. After you paypal me, I will put your name on the official list posted on yahoo. Only the official list of users will be eligible for the prizes.

Prize pool:
50% winner
30% second place
20% third place
last place gets their money back

All funds less paypal fees will go into the total prize payout. Join us in the chat room during the tournament.

Good luck!

OK folks, you can go a few ways with your brackets this year. You can rely on the advice of the “experts”, you can do your homework and look at trends and matchups, you can let your dog do the picking, or you can simply choose the winner based on mascots and school colors. I highly recommend the last two methods but here are some links for you.

Expert Advice:

• ESPN experts quick takes
• Andy Katz’s advice
• CBS Sportsline breakdown by Region:
  Atlanta | Minneapolis | Oakland | Washington D.C.
• SI.com tips for filling out your bracket
• MSNBC picks

Trends and History:

• Boston Sports Hub’s Trends Analysis Parts 1 and 2
• Final bracket results for 2005, 2004, 2003

Random Picking:

• Random bracket generator
• Or simply flip a coin to pick between higher and lower seeds.