Categories
NBA General

NBA Dance Team tournament


Finally a bracket we can all agree on. NBA.com has a competition featuring all the dance teams from both conferences squaring off tournament style. Everyone wins in this tournament. And by everyone, we mean all the guys out there. We’re a little late to this one (they’re already in the second round), but we’ll pick the Final Four anyway. This actually takes more time and research than the tournament but here are my predictions:

In the west, the Rockets Power Dancers lose to the Laker Girls. (Come on, they’re the Laker Girls! Like it was even close). In the east, we’ll go with the Heat Dancers over the Nets Dancers.

As for the finals. Well, picking between Lakers Girls and the Miami dancers just made my head explode.

I wish we could do a pool on this one.

[NBA.com]: NBA Dance Team Bracket

Categories
General Sports

Odds and Ends for Tuesday Mar 14 2006: Vitaly Klitschko runs for mayor

This has got to be the greatest idea I’ve ever heard. First of all, he doesn’t need the money so there’s very little chance he’ll be corruptable. Second, he’s 6’8″ 245, you think anyone is going to intimidate him?

[AP]: Ex-heavyweight champ wants to be mayor

[SignOnSanDiego]: Our favorite lesbian cheerleader avoids jail by pleading no contest.

[Sydney Morning Herald]: Bettor loses $20k trying to win $200 on a “sure thing” in cricket.

[NJ.com]: Atlantic City honors Don King and names a plaza after him but he still can’t promote fights there.

[Off Wing Opinion]: Someone calls out Bill Simmons for his tired shtick.

[SI]: Minor league hockey team plans “Dick Cheney hunting vest giveaway night. Shooting other fans in the face optional.

[Philly Sports Net]: Worst trades in Philly history.

Categories
College Basketball

Everyone hates the NCAA selection committee


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.
Categories
College Basketball

SC’s Official March Madness Pool

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!

Categories
College Basketball

Everything you need to pick your brackets

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:

Trends and History:

Random Picking:


Categories
Soccer

Googling Ashley Cole


Nobody really knows how Google truly works. It’s magic. You just type in a phrase and sometimes you get what you want and sometimes you get something really um… wrong. Sure, people know how to manipulate google search results (try searching for failure) but the way the algorithm works is too complicated for us morons.

Well, Ashley Cole, a soccer player in England, and his lawyers are not happy with Google because when you search for Ashley Cole, you get “See results for: Ashley Cole gay”. Here’s what happened. A British tabloid ran a story about gay sex involving some Premiership players but didn’t name anyone. Somehow, everyone thought Ashley Cole was involved so they all kept googling “Ashley Cole gay”. According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, results “sometimes shows related search queries based on what other users have been asking for.”

The best part about this is that because his lawyers are inquiring into it, more and more stories are hitting the web that involve the words “Ashley Cole” and “gay”. Bingo, more search results. It only gets worse from here on out for Ashley, but it’s highly amusing for us. To be fair though, Cole’s fiancee, Cheryl Tweedy, is smokin’.

[Forbes]: Schmidt’s Google Queried By Soccer Star’s Lawyers

Categories
General Sports

Odds and Ends for Monday Mar 13 2006: Nude Cycling is bad

Remember the Seinfeld episode with good naked and bad naked? Well, nude cycling is definitely bad naked. The nude bike ride held yesterday in the Tasman district of New Zealand got a lot of press lately because the Mayor of the town wanted the police to arrest the nude cyclists. But the police sergeant declared that the naked ride was not illegal. Illegal, no, ugly, yes.

[Philly.com]: Curt Schilling (still an asshole) hits batter with fastball, blames batter.

[NY Post]: Marbury criticizes Larry Brown for not letting him score more.

[Fox Sports]: All time best sports mustaches. (Why didn’t we think of this?)

[High Above Courtside]: Why Duke Sucks

Categories
MLB General

Who hired Bill Leavy to umpire the WBC?



wtf, ump?

(Oh, I know the Bill Leavy jokes will get tired soon enough but I’m using it for all bad reffing until the start of the NFL season.)

Well, folks, remember when we called the WBC a joke? Now, I’m sure the Japanese think so too. A tag up play turned from a run scored for the Japanese team to a controversial inning ending double play when the home plate umpire ruled the man at third left early. Replays show he didn’t leave early. So instead of being up one run, the game was still tied and then in the bottom of the ninth, A-Rod comes through in the clutch and gets the game winning RBI single.

The Japanese team was less than pleased. Why would the home plate umpire overrule the third base ump who was right there? Makes no sense to me.

Let’s see, 22 of the 32 umpires working the WBC are American. Most of em are second rate minor league umps. Are they biased or just incompetent?

[Fox Sports]: WBC could face major ump controversy

Categories
Arizona Cardinals

Edgerrin James loves money, hates winning



C.R.E.A.M.

That’s the only conclusion I can draw from Edge signing a $30M contract with the Arizona Cardinals. Now, I realize that he wasn’t going to win anything in Indy either because they have that choking problem, but he’s guaranteed not to win anything in Arizona.

Every year, we hear about a resurgence in the desert and how the Cardinals are for real this year. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me 15 times and I’m dumber than Vince Young. The Cardinals have never been and will never be a championship team. I realize I stand to upset the 37 Arizona fans in the world but they know I’m right.


We’re serious about winning,” Cardinals vice president Michael Bidwill said. “The new stadium allows us to do some things that we haven’t been able to do before.

Like what, Bidwell, losing in a brand new stadium?

Edge can spin this any way he wants. It’s clear as the stuff that Barry Bonds used that he went to Arizona for the cash.

[Yahoo]: Cardinals nab star running back in early free-agent splurge

Categories
College Basketball

2006 NCAA Tournament Odds

If you’re going to be in Vegas during March Madness, won’t you do us a favor and give us some live reports from it so we can both envy and hate you? For the rest of us, here are the odds for the top 16 teams to win the NCAA tournament. As of Monday, UConn is favored to win the tournament by the oddsmaskers, which basically guarantees they’ll lose.

#1 Seeds
Duke: 4-1
UConn: 5-2 (overall tourney favorite)
Villanova: 11-2
Memphis: 10-1

#2 Seeds
Texas: 14-1
Tennessee: 25-1
Ohio State: 18-1
UCLA: 12-1

#3 Seeds
Iowa: 45-1
N. Carolina: 12-1
Florida: 20-1
Gonzaga: 25-1

#4 Seeds
LSU: 28-1
Illinois: 20-1
Boston College: 25-1
Kansas: 25-1

You can get the full list here. By the way, the worst odds you can bet are 500-1: Air Force, Southern Illionis, NC-Wilmington, Kent State, George Mason, Bucknell, Wisc-Milwaukee, and Wichita State. If any of those teams won, Vegas would probably make a ton of dough.