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College Basketball

Odds and Ends: Bulldogs dominate March Madness


Now that the NCAA Tournament is set and ready to go (minus the ever popular play-in game of course), it’s time to start filling in all the blank lines of your brackets. But as you do so, you’ll probably notice that there are a whole lotta crazy mascots in this year’s tourney. OK, so maybe you won’t notice, but the hoops junkies at Best Week Ever did and here’s their list of The 10 Most Ridiculous Mascots In This Year’s NCAA Tournament:

10.UBMC Retrievers
9.Kent State Golden Flashes
8.St. Mary’s Gaels
7.Siena Saints
6.Cornell Big Red
5.University of San Diego Toreros
4.Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils
3.Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
2.Austin Peay Governors
1.The Bulldogs of Butler, Drake, Georgia, Gonzaga and Mississippi State

In other news…

[The Power Play]: Don Cherry dresses like a leprechaun for St. Patrick’s Day. We’re not surprised.

[The Big Lead]: Charlie Murphy never told us Prince was a Lakers fan.

[PhillyBurbs.com]: April’s Playboy cover girl Maria talks about being a super hot WWE Diva.

[KansasCity.com]: All-time “Worst” NCAA Champions.

[Chili Dog Blog]: Scary video of tornado hitting the SEC Tournament.

[YouTube]: Texas’ loss to Kansas was really painful; especially for one assistant coach.

[9News.com]: Leave it to a foreigner to be miffed about a 52-point victory.

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College Basketball

Bob Knight falls asleep at the idea of going back to Indiana

Last night, amidst all the Bracetology talk on ESPN‘s family of networks, Dick Vitale unveiled his blueprint to “dominate college basketball.” And frankly, it all seemed to bewilder/bore Bob Knight.

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College Basketball

O.J. Mayo gives Carnac the Magnificent a run for his money


The tournament shook out on Sunday evening as the brackets were revealed to a drooling, anticipation-ridden audience of millions. And after all was said and done, one matchup stands out above all the rest: USC vs. Kansas State. Now, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out why this 6/11 matchup is gonna be the bomb – it’s O.J. Mayo and Kevin Beasley fool! – but it does take some serious mental dexterity to figure out who you’ll draw before the selection show even goes down.

But that Mayo kid, he’s a sharp one.

I told him [Kansas State’s Bill Walker], ‘I think we’re going to draw you guys,”‘ Mayo said Sunday at Galen Center, where the Trojans watched as the pairings were announced. “Omaha seemed like a good place to play. At the same time, it’s all about the money.”

Mayo was referring to the fact that he and Kansas State’s Michael Beasley are two of the most talented freshmen in the country, making for an attractive matchup.

Beasley is the third-leading scorer in the country, averaging 26.5 points. Mayo isn’t far behind at 20.8 points. Both figure to be early first-round picks whenever they decide to declare for the NBA draft.

“It’s still Kansas State vs. USC–two good teams, two teams that play hard,” Mayo said. “We’ll get a crowd there, it should be exciting.”

The 20-year-old Mayo said he has known Walker since the age of 3, calling him “my best friend in the world.”

Mayo said the two spoke again after learning they would face each other.

“He was like, `What made you pick that?”‘ Mayo said with a smile.

Mayo made his prediction to several teammates as well.

“That’s what `O’ kept saying. It was a great call by him,” Davon Jefferson said.

Pretty good prediction by a kid who is playing in his first and probably last NCAA Tournament. Same goes for Beasley – uh, everything except the prediction part.

Links:

[CBS2.com]: Mayo Predicted Trojans Would Face K-State

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College Basketball

Mascots let their big heads go to their big heads

Mascot misbehavior has been at an all-time high this year. It seems like every time you turn around some dope in a costume is attacking some other dope in a costume. Tuesday night at the Summit League tournament championship the mascots from IUPUI and Oral Roberts got to scraping. Unfortunately, no heads went rolling.

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College Basketball

March Madness still costs ton of money for those who hire b-ball junkies


It’s almost NCAA Tournament time which means it’s time to hear about how much money your employer will lose this year as you surf the net looking for scores and secretly watch the games on the mini-television you have hidden under your desk.

This year’s final numbers indicate that $1.7 billion will be lost in productivity. But, hey, who cares as long as you get to see No. 14 seed knock off a No. 3 seed on a last second buzzer-beater.

The figure is based on the 37.3 million workers expected to participate in office pools during the NCAA men’s tournament, and the 1.5 million expected to watch games online from their desks. …

“Those who insist there will be no impact are kidding themselves,” Challenger said in a statement. “The key for companies is finding a way to maximize the positive aspects of March Madness so that they outweigh the negatives.”

For every 10 minutes workers spend on basketball, companies will lose about $109 million, Challenger said. That figure is based on the current average hourly wage for all American workers, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics pegs at $17.50.

Look, you can either lose $1.7 billion or we can all call in sick for a month. Your choice.

Links:

[SignOnSanDiego.com]: March Madness cost companies mad money

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College Basketball

Get a vasectomy in order to watch March Madness? The ball’s in your court


If you ask us, there is no good time to have vasectomy. However, the Oregon Urology Institute might be on to something with its latest ad campaign. After all, the only thing worse than getting snipped is getting snipped and having to flip back-and-forth between reruns of Family Matters and Dear John all day long.

When March Madness approaches you need an excuse . . . to stay at home in front of the big screen,” says the ad on Eugene’s sports radio AM 1320, aka The Score. “Get your vasectomy at Oregon Urology Institute the day before the tournament starts.

And if you’re not sold on the idea yet, just get a `load’ of the other perks that come along with getting neutered.

To help sell the idea, The Score promised to send each fixed fan a “recovery kit” that includes sports magazines, free pizza delivery and a bag of frozen peas.

“The frozen peas are malleable enough that you can get them right in there and get the swelling down,” [institute administrator Terry] FitzPatrick said.

Links:

[OregonLive.com]: Springfield urologists offer new excuse to view March Madness

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College Basketball

Digger Phelps gets frisky with a Jayhawks cheerleader

You always hear about Dick Vitale being the biggest off-the-court star in college basketball. “Dicky-V this” and “Dicky-V that”. Well, guess what, Vitale; you’re not the only geriatric on ESPN worth his weight in `old.’

Links:

[The Big Lead]: Digger Phelps is a Dancing Machine

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College Basketball

Michigan coach Kevin Borseth goes Mike Gundy following a loss

When it comes to women’s basketball, what would you say is the most important aspect of the game. Did you say offensive rebounding? You didn’t! Well, you’d be dead wrong if you said that to the lady Wolverines coach Kevin Borseth. Totally, totally, totally wrong.

Links:

[The Big Lead]: Michigan Loses, Coach Melts Down at the Podium

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College Basketball

We’ve heard of blood on the ice, but chunks on the court is a first for us

A funny thing happened before halftime of the Maryland/Virginia Tech basketball game last night. With under a minute remaining in the opening period, Hokies freshman Dorenzo Hudson barfed all over the court while Maryland was at the charity stripe. We could go into detail about the whole thing, but you know what they say: a picture is worth a thousand words. So, a moving picture must be worth about a thousand “ewwwwww, grosses”.

But some great things came out of this, mainly quotes. Here’s a sample of the responses Dan Steinber of D.C. Sport Bog picked up at the game.

THAT’S DIS-GUS-TING,” the student section began chanting.” …

“I got a whiff of it,” confirmed Maryland fan Russ Dlin, seated in the front row. “It smelled like puke, is what it smelled like.”

Others were more descriptive, and again, feel free to look away.

“I thought he got hit by a drink,” said Gary Harraka, also from the front row. “It just went squirting out. It was pretty disgusting.”

“He was going into his shirt, but it was still flying up,” said senior Greg Weller.

“He was holding his mouth and it sprayed up in the air,” said senior Dan O’Keefe.

“It sprayed at least two feet in the air,” agreed senior Clark Johnson.

“That was mostly liquid, though,” Weller chimed in. “First he blew out mostly chunks right there, then when he started covering up it started deflecting off his shirt.”…

“I was on the bench but I seen him lean back and I was like, ‘Aww, mannnn,’ ” Deron Washington said. “It was more funny than gross. We was laughing. I couldn’t focus for a few minutes ’cause he did that….That’s a first time for me. It was pretty hilarious….I started laughing, then I started getting a little queasy, but we just started clowning him after that.”

Oh, and Thorns did tell Kilgore what the pre-game meal was. “Same thing we always have,” he said: “steak, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese.

Links:

[D.C. Sports Bog]: Terps Gag, Hokies Puke: The Story

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College Basketball

We just can’t let go of Bob Knight

Don’t ask us why, we can’t explain it. Bobby Knight is just days into his retirement, but we’re already feeling nostalgic for the Knight era. We’ve hated the cantankerous old fart for decades now, but suddenly it’s as if our best friend took our dog and split town with our old lady. Okay, so it’s not quite that bad, but if we had to equate our inner feelings to something it would be a scab – it’s irritating, it’s a nuisance, it’s annoying and it can be painful, but when it’s gone, you always find yourself feeling where it once was.

Yup, the General was pretty much a verbal Picasso.