Final Four News, NCAA Tournament Bracket, News and hubbub

‘Zags ‘Shroom in Vroom-Vroom

The Fall from Grace is a tale as old as Dickey V.  Young small towner makes it to the big time in a rush of success, and then fame catches up.  She always does.

Gozaga was the darling boy of the NCAA hoops world, a perpetual underdog, ever the Cinderella who gets through the tourney with able guards and a little bit of luck.  But old mother Fame caught up to the Zags in a whirl of red and blue lights, boy did she.
 

The Bulldogs haven’t been America’s team in a while. They’re the favorites now, expected to make it deeper and deeper into the tourney every year.  And when they couldn’t, they lost track of what got them so much fame in the first place: perceived middle-American soberness.
 

Soon, Gonzaga found itself messed up in a world of misdemeanor marijuana charges, mind-altering psychedelic ‘shrooms, and thinking they could drive their cars around at night with no headlights because they don’t even need them, man.
 

But like most falls from grace, this one was a long time coming.
 

If you didn’t see the uncovering of drug-use in the Gonzaga future, then take a good, hard look at Adam Morrison.  Tell me he’s not hallucinating when he goes to the mirror every morning and decides not to shave his ‘stache.
 

But then again, this latest news might just be music to the ears of Coach Mark Few, who suddenly finds his team as an underdog once again, just hoping to make it to the dance.  They always did their best work when the expectations were the lowest.
 

Get Gonzaga tickets at StubHub.com if you want to see the Bulldogs NCAA Tournament hopes realized, or go up in smoke like so many other things.
         

One of These Things is not Like the Others

I’m sure you don’t, but do you remember when 98 Degrees was tearing up the charts and the hearts of teenage girls everywhere?  Well, I know, I know, neither do I.  But anyways, there was this one guy in the band who wore a ridiculous hat to hide his died blonde hair, had an awkward goatee, and whose mom must have been using hard during the pregnancy.
 

 Remember him?
 

 He just didn’t belong with the other four tall dark and handsomes, but he was up there on stage despite the obvious, singing and trying to dance. I think his name was Wisconsin McUgduck.
 

The point I was getting at was that when Wisconsin stands next to the other three front running Final Four contenders the Badgers stick out like a guy who got into the band purely based on singing prowess. 
 

You’ve got UCLA, the older, mature one; North Carolina, the deep one; and Florida, the cute one, and then there’s Wisconsin…
 

Who let this guy in?
 

But often in NCAA basketball, as in boy bands, it doesn’t matter how many dances you’ve been asked to before. 
 

If you like your college basketball teams to be just a little out of their element, then check out Wisconsin badgers tickets at StubHub.com. 

Artificial Madness

Well, the rankings and polls and bracket projections and previews are in full swing.  Never mind that the Conference Championship games are still yet to be played, there’s still plenty of fodder for the sports world to mill over and pontificate about. 
 

Actually, I couldn’t find much reason for debate among the AP, Coaches, SportsLine and ESPN’s rankings.  All appear to have the same order, at least for the top six or so.
 

Florida is overwhelmingly the number one pick, followed closely by a combination of UCLA, Ohio State, Wisconsin, and UNC.  The only real outlier as far as polls go is the only one that will matter: the RPI (Ratings Percentage Index).
 

In the whimsical RPI world Florida, the 22-2 defending National Champs, who returned all five starters etc, etc, etc, fell all the way to number 10. 
 

Florida never was good with voting, electronic or otherwise.
 

Check out Florida hoops tickets at StubHub.com to see (if Terminatior II and the Matrix hasn’t shown you already) what a messed up world this will be when computers start deciding more than basketball rankings for us.     
 

I’ll Give You Something to Cry About!

Alright, I’ve held my tongue long enough and now I’m letting it all out.
 

Was Josh McRoberts really crying in that Duke-UNC game? Really?  I could understand if you’re an old man accepting an award at half time, a figure skater getting knee-clubbed, or a t-baller whose father just got ejected (I was six, by the way), but other than that, come on.
 

And this was during the game.  It isn’t over; it’s not the end of the season, or his career.  Hell, even emotional stalwart Roy Williams is keeping it together.
 

Sports Guy Bill Simmons got it right when he blamed something’s-just-not-right-about-that-boy Adam Morrison for allowing college hoops starts to feel like it’s okay to blubber and tantrum throw every time life hands them some hardship. 
 

Imagine the momentum it gives the opposing team when they look over at the bench and see that you just brought Duke’s players to tears in front a stadium full of the girls their going to have to sit next to in class tomorrow.   
 

If there’s going to be Duke tickets in the NCAA Tournament tickets section at StubHub.com, then Duke and its players are going to have to swallow hard, keep their chin up, and finish their games like a man.  Otherwise, they’re really going to have something to cry about.

 

Permalink - Posted in General on February 9, 2007 - Post a comment

Selection ‘07

The two best things about committees are that you aren’t part of one, and that you can complain about whatever they decide.  Throughout the history of man, committees– be it the Council of Trent, Cheney, or a jury of our peers– have been making lists and coming to conclusions that sensible men like ourselves just can’t square with, and therefore, must bellyache about.
 

So don’t make me try to understand the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, because I don’t want to know what a hard job they have, I just want to complain that my well deserving USD Toreros got snubbed.  It’s my God-given right as a hoops fan.
 

According to Pat Forde at ESPN, who participated in a “demystifying” mock tourney selection process, the teams they pick aren’t the product of favoritism, random dice throws, or the occult, but reasonable, rational securitization by experts.  Hogwash!  
 

If you want to make the decision a little easier for the NCAA, get USD Toreros tickets at StubHub.com and support USD all the way to the WCC Championship.  Make it easier on them, and me.      

 

Permalink - Posted in General on February 8, 2007 - Post a comment

Devils’ Due

Both the Duke Blue Devils and the North Carolina Tar Heels came into Wednesday night’s showdown off of a recent loss, but the pressure was squarely on Duke, who were playing at home, down in the ACC, and in danger of achieving something they hadn’t in over eight years, a regular-season losing streak.

Hayseed after tenderfoot after greenhorn subbed in for the Tar Heels, who now have momentum, confidence, and the first third of a win streak.  For UNC fans, who awoke this morning with hair smelling of bonfire smoke and breath reeking of trash talk, the next Duke-UNC match up March 4^th will come all too soon.    

The Blue Devils?  Well, they have to travel to Maryland and Boston College, neither of which intend to break the Devils’ streak. 

Don’t miss the next classic UNC-Duke game. Get Tar Heels tickets at StubHub.com.    

Permalink - Posted in General on February 8, 2007 - Post a comment

How Are You Going to Celebrate Rivalry Week?

Who needs UNC and Duke?  Rivalry Week is about celebrating all rivalries, no matter the size, no matter the shape.  Do you honor only your sobriety during National Safe Boating Week?  Neither does anybody. 

That’s why I’m glad some of us have veered sharply away from our laser-like focus on Chapel Hill, and tried to concentrate on other rivalries.  You’d be missing a lot if you only paid attention to the biggest, best, most thrilling, and rewarding rivalries.  Nobody said commemorating rivalries was easy, or even that you had to think about currently existing arch nemeses.  

I present to you USC-UCLA.  Pat Forde seems to think that the next Pac-10 rivalry is buin’ between the Bruins and the Trojans.  It could happen.  They have the all-important “cross-town” distinction upon which so many great rivalries have fed.  Plus Arizona and Stanford are failing to impress of late, leaving the door open for a West Coast feud.

Interesting, indeed, interesting.  But let’s face it, I’ll think about anything to get my mind off of getting tickets to the Duke-UNC game at StubHub.com.   

Permalink - Posted in General on February 7, 2007 - Post a comment

Duke-UNC: Rivalry on the Hard-Ware

If you’re like me, then you can’t wait until sports are contested between robots, or at the very least cyborg-human-animal hybrids.  Until that day, I’m going to have to drive my fossil fuel car to an actual-reality stadium and watch mortals squabble about over some rivalry that will someday be calculated down to irrelevance.

The good news is that ESPN is already well on the way to the dim future.  They have instituted a predictive devise using a simulation game played out between two computerized opponents, simulating the Duke-UNC game on EA Sports’ NCAA March Madness ‘07.  The result was that North Carolina won, and a couple of ESPN interns have now been outsourced to technology. 

I have no idea of the accuracy of the video game simulation, but I can darn well tell you that StubHub.com will be betting you’d rather catch a Duke-North Carolina game in that outdated ol’ Cameron Indoor Stadium than see it played between the confines of your X-Box.   

Permalink - Posted in General on February 7, 2007 - Post a comment

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